CORRUPTION AND DEVELOPMENT(Tanzanian Context).

A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE MWALIMU NYERERE DAY TALK HELD AT TUMAINI UNIVERSITY DAR ES SALAAM COLLEGE, KURASINI CAMPUS, ON 14TH OCTOBER 2007.

Prepared by:MTOBESYA, JEREMIAH,a third year LLB student at TUMAINI UNIVERSITY DAR ES SALAAM COLLEGE, for the academic year 2007/2008.


INTRODUCTION.
This day is dedicated to the father of the Nation, the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere in remembrance of a lot of good things he did to his nation, African continent and the world at large. Among other good things that he did for his nation was to fight corruption. We are all gather in here as a way of showing respect to his contribution on the war against corruption. I would like to honor his contribution on the war by quoting a segment of one of his speeches when he was explaining on how he and his government back then dealt with corruption and corrupt people. I quote:
" Juu ya mambo ya rushwa hatutakuwa na utani na mtu hata kidogo. Rushwa ni jambo la hatari sana. Huwezi kununua haki, haki hainunuliwi. Thamani yake ni shillingi ngapi hasa. Mtu akila rushwa, aliyetoa na aliyepokea wote watapata msukomsuko. Hatutakuwa tunatania tukatengeneze sheria, akishathibika Mahakamani kwamba kala rushwa hatutamuachia Hakimu uamuzi wa adhabu; tukasema atakwenda ndani muda usiopungua miaka miwili, atapata viboko ishirini na nne. Viboko kumi na mbili siku anaingia, viboko kumi na mbili siku anatoka akamuonyeshe mkewe"
May his soul rest in eternal peace, AMEN!

This paper discusses corruption in relation to development. It tries to look on how corruption affects the development of our country, solutions or way forward that we can possibility take to fight this cancer ,what position Tanzania ranks in the world corruption report and lastly the conclusion.

PART I. EFFECTS OF CORRUPTION ON A COUNTRY'S ECONOMY(Case study of Tanzania)

The word corruption is not a new vocabulary to most of us, as we either use it in our day to day conversations or hear about it from other people. Various attempts to provide definitions to the word, by different sources, have been made. I am pretty sure that most of you in here have one or two definitions that you can attach to the word.

However, from the sources I happen to have consulted so far, the most appealing definition to me, and which I shall adopt in this work is the one offered by the Concise Oxford Dictionary. It defines corruption as "moral deterioration". To understand it better, let us look at what "moral" and "deterioration" means. The same source defines the word moral as something concerned with accepted rules and standards of human behavior, or conformity to accepted standards of general conduct. Deterioration, from the same source still, is defined as to make or become bad or worse. In that connection, corruption can be inferred to mean an act or acts which are inconsistent with the accepted rules and standards of human behavior or accepted standards of general conduct.

In line with the above definition, Black’s Law Dictionary defines corruption in an exemplified manner. It defines corruption as an activity done with an intent to give advantage inconsistent with official duty and the rights of others. The act of official or fiduciary person who unlawfully and wrongfully uses his status or character to procure some benefit for himself or for another person contrary to duty and the right of others. It goes further to state that corruption is the solicitation, receiving or agreeing to receive, giving, promising or offering any gratification as an inducement or reward to a person to do or for bear to do any act, with a corrupt intent.

Development has also been severally defined by different sources. Concise Oxford Dictionary defines the word development as industrialization or economic advancement of a country or an area. This definition will be my center of focus in this first part of the discussion.

It is common knowledge that there is a big connection between corruption, poor development and poverty in our country. I believe that some of you in here, if not all, will agree with me on this.

The Legal and Human Rights Centre, in its 2006 Tanzania Human Rights Report states that corruption posses a serious problem to development, as it undermines good governance and democracy. The economic impacts of corruption are various, as it slows down the development, increases the cost of private business and diverts public investments.

The late Professor Chachage S. L. Chachage, in his paper on Globalization; Politics and Good Govemance in Tanzania, offered a real illustrative scenario on how corruption can be detrimental to a country’s economic. According him, in the mid 1970s in Tanzania, a number of parastatals, especially marketing boards, were tainted with corruption, fraud and embezzlement of public funds. Those parastatals had also become am increasing drain on central government finances as distribution and buying programmes consumed larger magnitudes of official credit. By 1976, the Minister of Home Affairs reported an official figure of corruption and embezzlement of funds to a tune of Tshs. 1,600 million.

By 1978, most parastatals, which were supposed to be purchasing crops from the farmers, were increasingly becoming unable to do so. They become heavily indebted to the banks because of unaccountability corruption and inefficiency. By 1981/82, some nine parastatals had combined losses of Tsh. 692 million (USD 84m). The National Milling Corporation alone was responsible for two thirds of those losses. By the same year, the parastatals’ overdrafts had reached Tshs. 5,127 million and accounted for 80% of the loans of the National Bank of commerce.

In the late 1970s, the country began to face an economic crisis. The economic crisis resulted into foreign reserves which had packed at USD 281.8 million in 1977, to fall to USD 99.9 million in 1978 and finally to USD 20.3 million in 1980.By 1980, the value of exports was equivalent to 43% only of imports and the trade gap was over Tshs. 6 billion. Similarly, industrial capacity utilization was between 30% and 50% on the average and at this time the manufacturing sector accounted for only 5.8% of a smaller GDP compared to 1977 when it accounted for 10.4% .Manifestation of the effects of the crisis by 1980 were deterioration in the balance of trade, a fall in agricultural production (food and export crops),negative per capita growth and high inflation rates. Others were acute shortage of essential consumer goods, low industrial capacity utilization, deterioration in the budgetary position and general deterioration of the condition of the working people.

When Tanzania approached the World Bank and the IMF to negotiate for loans to deal with the situation, the institutions refused to lend her money unless there were changes made in the policy directions by implementing structural Adjustment Programmes. The conditionalities attached to the SAPs required Tanzania to devalue the currency significantly, freeze wage increases, increase interest rates, decontrol prices, remove subsidies on agriculture inputs and foods stuffs, relax import controls, encourage private investments and reduce government spending by cutting down budget on social services.

Some lawyers and social scientists were against the conditionalities. But from 1981, the government had started implementing them in a form of home made programmes, to the extent that by 1986 it had accepted all the conditionalities and the philosophy behind them. The government, by early 1990, had liberalized crops marketing; liberalized the distribution of most inputs; introduced freehold lease in land ownership; and liberalized the investment policy in favor of private investments. It had also deregulated exchange and interest rate; reformed the fiscal and monetary policies; removed all subsidies for agricultural and foodstuff; reintroduced schools; and reintroduced poll tax under the guise of Development Levy. The country became a victim of the above harsh SAPs conditionalities because of the mid 1970s unaccountability, corruption and inefficiency which prevailed in many parastatals in the country.

However, as the Warioba Commission Report states, there is no doubt that corruption is rampant in all sectors of the economy, public service and politics in the country. The government tendering sector, for example is an area where there is rampant corruption. In his acceptance speech, President Kikwete recognized that the area of contract is one front on which the Government will focus in the war to corruption .

But however, corruption still continues to flourish in the tendering sector. In 2006 for instance, the contact between the Government of Tanzania and the Richmond Development Corporation left people with serious doubts about its legality and authenticity. According to the media report, this contract was concluded between the two parties without regard to Public Procurement Act, 2001, which governs procurement of public goods and services. As a result, the 20 Megawatts negotiated were not generated in time and the country had to face serious power rationing.

The Buzwagi Project is another area which is suspected to be tainted with corruption. The terms of contract in the project raise alot of suspicion to the public. It has been noted that the contract appears to give Pangea Minerals Limited, as the project developer, extraordinary leeway in areas of taxation and contributions to national and local government development. It also binds the government to maintain the same taxes and fiscal laws applicable to the company today for the entire duration of the mine, which is a minimum of 25 years and a maximum that by the terms of the contact could well be more or less indefinite.

Still on the tendering sector, the construction industry is another area where corruption is deep rooted. In this industry corruption is reported mainly in procurement. From Annual Return Forms for the year 2005, 40.1% of respondents on problems encountered during 2005 ranked corruption, favoritism and bureaucracy a serious problem in the area of work opportunity. Also 6.7% indicated corruption and favoritism as a reason for not being awarded tenders during 2005. Corruption in this area has led to poorly built infrastructure because much of the budgeted money intended for the construction of the projects is used for bribery or as refund money for costs already incurred in corrupt transactions to procure tenders.

Corruption in the construction industry again leads to lose of billions of shillings of taxpayer’s money. The Bank of Tanzania Twin Towers for instance cost over Tshs. 200 billion of taxpayers money. Despite the testimony of numerous civil engineers saying that the building costs were beyond what it should be, the responsible persons for the project were cleared of any wrongdoing.

There are a number of other sectors and areas which are very much affected with corruption and in the long run affect our country’s development. The above illustrated instances are just but a tip of an ice berg. There are other numerous instances which can fall in the category. However, as I have submitted, generally, that is how corruption can affect a country’s development.

PART II. WAY FORWARD.
"Shule ni mahali panapokuza thamani na utu wa kila mwanajamii. Ni mahali panapolea mawazo machanga. Kwa hiyo shule ni kioo na picha ya jamii ya baada ye. Na kama tukiachia rushwa kuingia katika mfumo wa Elimu, tutakuwa tunadumaza jamii" – Joseph Sinde Warioba, Dar es salaam 2004.
"…..wale wenye wajibu wa kufanya kazi na vijana wa umri mdogo wana nguvu kubwa zisizozidiwa na nguvu za yeyote yule, kwa kutilia maanani hali ya baadaye ya jamii. Nguvu hizo zipo katika makundi mawili – wazazi na walimu – Mwalimu Juliusi K. Nyerere, 27th August 1966.

It is my strong believe that corruption can be fought through education. I will look at education in two levels, that is, at school level (primary and secondary level) and at community level.

In part one, I pointed out that corruption is an act which is inconsistent with accepted rules and standards of human behavior or accepted standards of general conduct. These accepted rules and standards of human behavior or accepted standards of general conduct are what we call norms and values.

Norms provide a means by which we orient ourselves within a group of people. They give us guidelines on how we should act so that we can get on with our mutual activities. Consequently they become standards by which we judge one others action and in turn reward or punish various behaviors.

Values on the other hand are abstract ideas of what is desirable, correct and good that most members of a society share. They supply conceptions whereby we evaluate people, objects and events as either relative worth merit, beauty or morality. We appeal to values for the ultimate rationale for the choices we make in life.

To educate means giving intellectual, moral and social instructions to (a pupil, especially a child), as a formal and prolonged process.

I am of the view that anti-corruption ethics should be introduced into the primary and secondary school curriculum and tough as a subject. It is at this stage that norms and values that are against corruption can be tough and be understood well by the young people involved there. These are areas where a member of the community’s dignity and personality is built. I am made to believe so because, at this level, as the late Mwalimu puts it, teachers have a high influencing power in molding and shaping the behaviors of these young people.

Schools are areas where young thoughts are bred, and therefore, they reflect and give a clear picture of a future community, according to J.S Warioba. If this is so, in order then for us to bring up a community which is free from corruption, anti-corruption ethics should be taught at an early level of education such as primary and secondary school levels.

In line with that, extra-curriculum activities like debates and seminars on anti-corruption ethics should be encouraged at primary and secondary levels. These forums should be address by the young people themselves so that they can assess themselves on how much they are aware of the ethics. However, external speakers should also be invited to give the young people more knowledge on the same.

Parents should also take part in this. They should teach their children anti-corruption ethics. If we join hands in this, I am sure that in the next thirty or so years corruption will be a thing of the past. Corruption is a behavior just like any other and so if we join hands in this fight against it, will be victors one day.

The community should be educated too. Few spirited individuals who know the effects of corruption and anti-corruption ethics should go into the community and educate people. The notion in the minds of some members of the community that corrupt people are heroes should be erased from such people’s minds. This can be achieved when we join hands with the Prevention and Combation of Corruption Bureau in educating the community. It is only when the truth is well known to the community that we can succeed in this fight.

The most serious area that the community should be education on is on elections. Corruption is rampant during elections. In recent years, concerns have been expressed about the increasing trend of exchanging money for votes in elections. Through the allure of money and other material favors, which are sometimes too tempting to the electorate, malicious politicians can make their way to be political podium.

This act should be condemned by all means. The community should be sensitized on the effects of selling their votes to the corrupt candidates. They should be made aware that the act robs people of their right to elect a candidate of their choice and that it also robs the upright individuals of opportunities to exercise their political skill that would ultimately contribute to the well being of the society. As a result we end up with undesirable characters that rarely give priority to the interests of the electorate. Such characters are keener in recovering the money they "invested" during elections rather then serving the people. Eventually the community becomes a loser.

I don’t mean that this is the only area that the community should be educated on. There are other many areas which the community should be sensitized on but I chose to point on this because it is a serious area where alot of efforts are needed in order to achieve our ultimate goal.

There are other ways which can be employed to fight corruption. In 2002 , for instance, the Economic and Social Research Foundation reported recommendations vital to improving the then Prevention of Corruption Bureau, hereinafter referred to as PCB. I will enumerate them below:
- Allowing PCB to prosecute all cases without going through the Director Public Prosecution. This will speed up prosecution of cases, and remove corruption cases from {the Government’s} nole proseque prerogative.
- Requiring the Secretariat for Leadership Ethics [of Public Ethics Commission] to refer all cases of corruption by leaders to the PCB. This will enable PCB to deal with leaders more comprehensively. The idea here is that leaders should get the same treatment as ordinary citizens.
- PCB should promote the involvement and active participation of the civil society in the fight against corruption - Commenting on this point recently, Activists from Civil Society Organizations said that fighting corruption should be a national concern and that all the people should be fully engaged.
- There is need to strengthen the capacity of PCB to prevent corruption and fight against corruption. In particular, attention should be paid to improving the scheme of service, working facilities and training.
- There is need to enhance the autonomy of PCB by revising the Constitution accordingly. The Director General should have appointment procedures whereby the name is proposed by the President and approved by parliament. The removal procedure should be like that of the High Court Judges. The Governing Body of the Bureau should be appointed by the president under guidelines to be provided in the Constitution.
- Declaration of assets by public leaders should be deemed to be public information.

Journalists should keep up the good work they are doing in informing the public on corruption issues. With the coming into force of the new ant-corruption Act, the Prevention and Cambation of Corruption Act, 2007, there were doubts as to whether or not their work could be interfered with the Prevention and Combation of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) officials. But thanks to the Director General of the Bureau, Mr. Hosea, that the doubt was cleared. They should now keep up with the good work they were doing before. The few who are corrupt should stop that behavior and join hands with their well behaved and principled fellow journalists in the war against corruption.

To acknowledge the good work done by the journalists in the fight against corruption in this country, I would like to enumerate some few corruption cases that were reported in our local newspapers;-
-On 16 April, 2006 the Sunday Citizen reported the Dodoma Regional Commissioner revealed allegation of corruption and mismanagement of funds by Dodoma Municipal Council Director, Mrs. Monica Kwiluhya. It was said that the Council Director was allowing illegal tender procedures by not making the bidding process public and by giving the contracts to individuals employed by the Municipal Council.
-On Aprill 11,2006. This Day reported that the Government has uncovered a scheme between the Treasury and the local Government officials that was siphoning off money from teacher’s salaries. The Minister of state, local Government and Regional Administration, Hon. Mizengo Pinda affirmed that over 103 officials have been suspended for sending huge amounts of money to {…} municipal councils in excess of the money required to pay for teacher’s salaries and later collected the difference which is than shared among municipal council officials.
-On 19 April, 2006 the Guardian gave details about a research conducted on recurrent malpractice of traffic police officer with regard to commutes bus (daladala). The research showed that bribing police officers is part of doing business in transportation in Dar es Salaam. The drivers admit to regularly break numerous traffic and safety regulations (such as overloading or riding on unfit machinery) because police officers are easily corrupted. The standard bribe ranges between 2,000/= and 5,000/= per bus day and is charged by the officers even when no relation is committed. According to this research some officers collect up to Ths. 300,000 daily.
-On 15 November, 2006. Mwananchi gave an account of the arrest of the ward Executive Officer for Temeke, after allegation of corruption in the distribution of building permits were revealed.

The public should also continue with the good work by reporting corruption incidences to the Prevention and Combation of Corruption Bureau or local newspaper editors. In Kilimanjaro for instance, it was reported to the Bureau in the region that hospital officials at Mawenzi Hospital were corrupt. They sell blood for transfusion to patients, some thing which was alleged to be against the law, prescribed medicine to patients and direct them to buy the prescribed medicine in pharmacies owned by those officials; charge more than Tshs. 10,000 for surgery and more than Tshs. 5,000 for attending to fractured or broken bornes. Another committed citizen wrote a letter to the editor and commented on the traffic connected corruption.

With commitment and joint efforts, while implementing the above mentioned strategies and any other strategies in the same line, I am positive that we will emerge victors in this fight.

PART III. THE POSITON TANZANIA HOLDS IN THE WORLDS CORRUPTION REPORT.
According to the 2006 Transparent International Corruption Perceptions Index. (TICPID), Tanzania is ranked at the 93rd position out of 163 countries. Comparing with 2005 performance (where Tanzania’s rank was 96 out of 154), the situation has slightly improved. However the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) remained at 2.9; just as it was in 2005.

Transparency International’s 2006 Report states that the weak performance of many countries indicates that the facilitators of corruption continue to assist political elites to launder, store and otherwise profit from unjustly acquired wealth, which after includes looted state assets.

CONCLUSION.
Corruption has got a number of effects to the society. It is one and among the major factor which contribute to the country’s poverty and poor development. The impact of corruption on the society, among others, are government’s failure to achieve its objectives, an increase in government’s administrative costs, erodes the courage to adhere to standards of probity, decrease in revenue collection, diminished respect for authority reduce foreign investment and decisions made are based on monetary terms instead of human values and ethics. It also, during elections, rob upright individuals of opportunity to exercise their political skill that would ultimately contribute to the well being of the society. Those, coupled with other factors, deteriorate our economy affects our development and make our country poor.

Tanzania still ranks among the poorest countries in the world. According to the government, a third of all Tanzanians are living in absolute poverty, while some 20% live in abject poverty.It is serious and absurd to note that while other people are enriching their pockets through corruption, other fellow citizens are languishing in poverty. The story of this 75 years old widow, Clementine, from Katare, Kagera Region, gives a scenario of what it means to be poor in Tanzania. Here is the story:
Clementine’s story: The reality of rural life.
Clementine is 75 years old, a window of a husband who died from polio, living with four orphaned children from her deceased daughter, on a two –acre banana and coffee shamba in Katate, Kagera Region. A secondary school teacher that knew Clementine’s daughter Doto before she died of AIDS some two years ago visited Clementine at her request because she wanted to talk to him as she though her regular attack of malaria would kill her. She asked him why chloroqune, the drug that she used to take for malaria, had been removed from the dispensaries and replaced with new medicines such as arinate, that at 6000 shillings she could not afford to buy. She asked why she had to suffer from a disease that she knew could be cured if only she could access the right medication. The teacher was not prepared for the reality of this question, he could provide the reasons but offer no solution. The coffee price offered by the Union has been plummeting for many years now. We have been told to produce organic coffee that is preferred by Europeans but this requires cow manure and coffee husks. The husks are no longer available as we have sold coffee unprocessed for too long, and the little hand machines that were used many years ago are no longer around. The ‘Mshasha tree; fro which the hand machines were made, has disappeared along with the people who knew how to make them. The problem is that traditional practices have not been past down to the present generation who know nothing about these hand machines. The Government is not encouraging farmers to process coffee because I am told even cashew nut growers are exporting unprocessed nuts to India. ‘She said that there was a fundamental problem of allowing private buyers who seemingly offer better prices but no second payment. These private buyers, especially those from Uganda, use engine powered boats to take both coffee and fish. Just imagine, our village is just four kilometers above the shores of Lake Victoria but we can no longer buy fish at the prices we used to. The Nile perch is sold to commercial fishermen and to the large fish fillet factories. The small artisan fisherman in canoe is no longer allowed to fish at the very same shores as he does not have the right nets, which are too expensive to buy. The staple crops of Bukoba are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain with a poor price for coffee and the unavailability of cheap fish that we had in past times. There is no money to buy sugar, maize, meat or fish. Life has become miserable for people like me. The food situation is bad here, not only have we experienced drought in the last few years but we are also facing an uphill struggle with shortage of fertilizer, whilst banana weevils are eating away the stem. All this has led to a poor food situation, where I can no longer feed my family properly. As if the problem wasn’t already great enough, many of the young adults within our village have left us either either because of TB, malaria or HIV/AIDS. We can’t keep cows because nobody is there to look after them. We ourselves suffer from poor health; we cannot go for more than a few weeks before a member of family suffers from malaria. The local mission dispensary has no medical staff and no medicine, what there is too expensive us to afford. Children are dying around us.

Corruption fuels poverty and injustice for millions of ordinary citizen. We all need to join hands in this fight so that we can make this country a better place for our sons and daughters to live in someday. Although there seems to be a big battle ahead of us, I have a strong feeling that there will come a day when our efforts will be fruitful and corruption will be a thing of the past. We should not lose hope no matter what huddles and obstacles may come our way. With courage and determination, I am positive that we will win this battle.
Thank you for your time , and for listening!!

REFERENCE.
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15. Jarida la Taasisi ya KUZUIA RUSHWA Toleo na. 3, 2004