In an impromptu visit to the Central Bank in Dar es Salaam, President John Magufuli, among other things, ordered the financial institution to halt such payment pending the re-evaluation.
By the time Dr Magufuli issued the directive, the bank was in the process of settling the arrears as approved by the ministry.
President Magufuli gave the order during a meeting with the BoT Governor, Professor Benno Ndulu, deputy governors and directors of various departments, also insisting that the ministry should re-assess the debts to find out whether the recipients of the funds deserve the payments or not.
In a related development, Dr Magufuli instructed that the External Debts Department, which had been moved from the BoT to the Ministry of Finance and Planning, should be reinstated to the central bank to monitor borrowing and payments of debts.
President Magufuli went on to direct Prof Ndulu to review the list of BoT employees and do away with workers who are not required. “We cannot continue to have a big number of employees who are paid salaries and yet their responsibilities are not known”, he instructed.
President Magufuli was told during the surprise visit that the central bank had a workforce of 1,391 people.