Tanga: Tanzania’s Prime Minister Dr Mwigulu Nchemba has issued a stark warning to public officials, accusing some of using rising construction costs as a pretext to conceal corruption and the loss of public funds.
Speaking in Kilindi district in the north-eastern Tanga region, Dr Nchemba said “cost escalation” had become an all-too-convenient explanation for incomplete or scaled-down public projects, depriving citizens of essential services.
“Hiding in the bush of rising costs is theft,” he said, as he laid the foundation stone for the Kilindi District Hospital during an inspection tour. “There is a game being played to justify the loss of public funds.”
His remarks reflect growing concern across parts of Africa about value for money in infrastructure spending, particularly as governments face tighter fiscal space, rising debt servicing costs and increasing scrutiny from both domestic watchdogs and international lenders.
Questions over missing buildings
At Kilindi, Nchemba praised the quality of the buildings completed so far but questioned local officials over discrepancies between the funds disbursed and the structures delivered.
“I have been informed that the funds released were enough to construct more buildings than those I see here,” he said. “You have built fewer structures — where has the rest of the money gone?”
He cited delays in the construction of a maternal ward and other planned facilities, challenging changes in budget estimates and suggesting that inflated projections were being used to legitimise losses.
The Kilindi hospital project cost 2.64bn Tanzanian shillings, of which 2.51bn came from central government allocations, 50m from the district council’s own revenues and 89.9m from the World Bank. Once complete, the hospital is expected to ease the financial and logistical burden on residents who have had to travel to neighbouring districts for treatment.
Nchemba said the facility should eventually reach a standard comparable to a regional referral hospital, capable of handling emergencies locally in an area where patients often face long journeys to Tanga city.
“It must be self-reliant and capable of handling emergencies here,” he said.
The prime minister also cited what he described as questionable procurement decisions elsewhere in the country.
Following a recent inspection in Handeni, he said cement for a vocational training centre had been transported from Dar es Salaam despite the presence of cement factories in Tanga and Mbeya. Similar cases, he alleged, involved materials being sourced from distant regions where closer suppliers existed.
“How can cement for a project in Tanga come from Dar es Salaam when there are factories here?” he asked. “These are tactics to inflate costs and create room for misappropriation.”
He directed Tanzania’s anti-corruption agency to investigate projects where costs had risen unusually, promising legal action against officials found culpable. At the same time, he stressed that the government would not pursue politically motivated cases but would act where citizens had been denied services as a result of financial mismanagement.
The warning comes as Tanzania continues to invest heavily in health and water infrastructure as part of its broader development agenda.
In Kilindi, Nchemba also inspected the Kwamaligwa water project, valued at 6.98bn shillings upon completion and funded through the national Water Fund under the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency. Drawing from a dam capable of storing more than 670m litres annually, the project is expected to serve more than 36,000 residents. To date, contractors have been paid 4.61bn shillings for completed work.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, infrastructure delivery remains central to economic growth, but governance challenges and procurement inefficiencies have often undermined public trust. International financial institutions have increasingly tied lending to stricter transparency and accountability standards, while domestic anti-corruption bodies face pressure to demonstrate independence.
Dr Nchemba stressed that fiscal discipline is not optional.
“We cannot allow inflated costs to burden the government and deny services to citizens,” he said — framing the battle against corruption not only as a legal matter, but as a moral and developmental imperative.
