Annual general report of the controller and - Parliament of Tanzania

5.6 Lack of segregation of duties.
Segregation of duties is a basic key of internal control used
to ensure that errors or irregularities are prevented or
detected on a timely basis by employees in the normal
course of business. Segregation of duties ensures
crosscheck of duties whereby a single employee is not
allowed to perform incompatible duty. During audit we
noted some Public Authorities which lacks segregation of
duties in various departments singled out in the following
examples:
Entity Description
Tanzania Ports Authority Finance section at ports in Mwanza,
Kigoma, Kyela and Inland Container
Terminals revealed lack of
segregation of duties especially in
the accounts section had shortage of
staff and as a result most of the
functions supposed to be carried out
by accounts staff were carried out by
operational staff that are not
conversantly trained to handle such
activities and therefore, there was
no distinction between service
Tanzania Civil Aviation
Authority
rendering and book keeping.
Cash is received at different stations
by a clerk/accountant who is also
responsible for recording the cash
received.
5.7 Outstanding receipts on the monthly bank reconciliation
statements of DAWASCO
Included in the list of reconciling items in the bank
reconciliation for CRDB A/C 900 as at 30 June 2008 were
long outstanding amounts mainly cheques received from
customers amounting to Shs 14 million that had not been
credited in the bank account. These long outstanding
receipts can be analysed as shown below;
___________________________________________________________
Office of the Controller and Auditor General PA&oBs 2007/08 101