PRIME Minister Dr Mwigulu Nchemba yesterday commissioned a new medical oxygen production plant at the Lushoto District Hospital, valued at 526.8m/-, while cautioning district officials about lax administration.

In his remarks, he said that the facility is a milestone for regional healthcare and beyond, having the capacity to produce 120 cylinders of 50 kilograms per day, solving medical oxygen needs in the hospital and well beyond.

The hospital used to rely on transporting oxygen cylinders 175 kilometers to Tanga city for refilling, which officials say was a logistical hurdle compromising emergency medical response. To date, the plant has already filled over 1,440 medical oxygen cylinders, proving its vital role in the local health infrastructure, officials said while the celebratory mood was soon overshadowed by the premier’s deep dissatisfaction with the supervision of other infrastructure projects.

 He said some civil servants were sleeping in their offices rather than conducting field inspections, affirming that during his inspection of local schools, he identified a litany of irregularities.

These badly conducted works ranged from the lack of Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) certification for building materials to the absence of withholding tax receipts and questionable procurement records, he explained.

"We cannot have officials who treat the people's problems as mere greetings," he said, insisting that when funds are provided they have to be used for intended work. “We want to see results on the ground, not excuses in the office," he declared.

He pointed out that in several areas, including Mtui secondary school and Irente rainbow primary school, construction projects for dormitories and classrooms were completed with substandard desks, chairs and ceiling boards despite full funding being disbursed.

Hinting at a scent of corruption in such procurement gaps, he directed the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) to launch immediate forensic investigation into the district’s construction projects. 

He specifically pointed to the lack of quality certificates for iron sheets, bricks and cement as a sign of potential embezzlement and negligence, while raising other issues beyond infrastructure and financial audits, ,

The government will no longer tolerate the mismanagement of development funds or the habit of seeing complaints as public grievances, at a time when the government is intensifying its crackdown on bureaucracy and corruption to ensure that national resources yield tangible benefits for the public.

The premier was on a high-profile tour of Tanga Region, where in the day .long public meeting he reminded officials that hiding behind paperwork while projects crumble on the ground is not acceptable anymore. 

Every cent allocated for development must be strictly utilized for its intended purpose, with the quality of the finished work serving as the only acceptable evidence of performance, he stated.

Similarly, failure to address local issues leads to unnecessary blame being placed on the national leadership even when the central government has already fulfilled its obligations in that regard, he added.