Dodoma — The Tanzania Prisons Service is set to recruit 2,750 new officers, Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba, said on Thursday May 03.
He was tabling the Sh945.5 billion expenditure plan for his ministry for financial year 2018/19. Some 750 officers from the total will be recruited before the end of the year 2017/18. The remaining 2,000 will join the force after implementation of the new budget.
The ministry will also employ 74 new staff at the headquarters to fill gaps left as a result of various reasons and promote 106 workers to various positions as well as change titles of 11 employees.
"There are housing projects for prisons camps in Ukonga (Ilala District) and Chato District in Geita Region. Also, we are looking forward to completing construction of 323 houses across the country," he said.
About the Police Force, Dr Mwigulu said the ministry would construct 400 houses for law enforcers across the country at a budget of Sh10 billion, which was availed by President John Magufuli in March, this year.
He added that in the 2017/18 the Police Force managed to reduce criminal offences by 17 per cent from 56,913 incidents, which were recorded between July 2016 and March 2017, and that of the corresponding period in 2017/18.
Also in the course of maintaining security of the country, Dr Nchemba said the police managed to seize 358 firearms that were illegally acquired.
"There was good progress that saw reduction of traffic accidents by 35 per cent as statistics recorded between July 2017 and March 2018 show occurrence of 4,180 fatalities that claimed the lives of 1,985 people, leaving 4,447 others with injuries," he told the House. He added that the police force would continue to use the speed machine to control speeding by motorists.
Speaking about the Fire and Rescue Force, he said the government would continue with efforts to have it empowered.
According to him, the force needs at least 162 posts but the country has only 62. He said it has 72 fighting gears out of 324 needed but has managed to extinguish 1,217 fire incidents by March this year.
"Right now we are finalizing the process to procure four firefighting gears using the 2017/18 budget," he said.
The minister furthermore explained that the immigration department in the year 2018/19 will continue to install the electronic passport systems including the e-visa, e-permit and control the entry border to the country using e- border management control system.
In its part, the parliamentary standing committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defense has asked government to completing big projects before it embarking on the next.
Reading the committees opinion, Vice Chairman Salum Mwinyi Rehani said there was a need to accomplish the construction of headquarters of Fire and in Rescue forces in Dar es Salaam despite government's determination to relocate its capital to Dodoma.
The committee also asked the government to set a long term strategy to accomplish the projects that have been abandoned for a long time.
Tabling the budget, Dr Nchemba asked the assembly to approve Sh945.5 billion for the year 2018/19. The amount is up by Sh15.1 billion of Sh930.3 billion approved for the year 2017/18.
"Sh907.2billion is for other charges including Sh521.5 billion for salaries, Sh385.7billion office expenses whereas Sh38.2 billion is for development projects," he said.
Debating the budget, lawmakers asked the ministry to pump more budget for the criminal investigation department in order that it can be able to probe the so called unidentified people.
Tabora north MP, Almas Maige said this would be a way forward to enable the police identify those who are in a chain of the said unknown assailants.
The Mlimba Mp on Chadema ticket, Susan Kiwanga complained the police force saying they are not doing justice especially for the members of the opposition parties.
