DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Saturday ordered permanent secretaries and ministers to stop interfering with the operations of the country's 248 public enterprises to make them productive.
"Some of the public enterprises are forced by the permanent secretaries and ministers to contribute huge sums of money for running their dockets. This is unacceptable and should stop," said President Hassan when she opened a three-day working session for the public enterprises in Tanzania's northern city of Arusha.
The head of state urged board chairmen and chief executive officers of public enterprises to change their mindset in the running of the enterprises to make them productive and support the government's economic development reforms.
"You should work hard to make the enterprises productive. Don't let me down," said President Hassan, directing the Treasury Registrar to introduce contract performance agreements for public enterprises.
Hassan said public enterprises that will fail to deliver will be shut down because they were a burden to the government.
She said the public enterprises should learn from their counterparts in other countries, whose public enterprises were operating efficiently across the world, and supporting their country's economic development reforms.
Nehemiah Mchechu, the Treasury Registrar, said the working session that has attracted the country's largest think tank will address reforms and rebuilding of the 248 public enterprises with a view to making them productive and contributing to the national economy.
Kitila Mkumbo, the Minister of State in the President's Office responsible for Planning and Investment, said the government has started reforming public enterprises by employing skilled experts with corporate culture. ■