Dar es Salaam, Sept. 8 -- PRIME Ministers directive to councils across the country to cut unnecessary expenditure and channel the savings into priority development projects could not have come at a more important time.

At its core, the directive is a call for greater discipline in the management of public resources. Government money is taxpayers money, and every shilling spent by a public institution should produce value for citizens.

Where resources are limited and development needs are enormous, councils and other public institutions cannot afford to spend scarce funds on activities that do not directly contribute to improving peoples lives.

The scale of the challenge facing the education sector alone makes the case compelling. With ...