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Issue 00492 |
October 27 - November 2, 2007 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
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In Focus |
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Innovations to fight corruption
There is much evidence to suggest that there is need to find alternative ways to prevent corruption practices in Tanzania. Few, if any, will disagree with the fact that existing laws and law enforcement systems have failed and will always fail to prevent embezzlements of public funds and corruption practices in Tanzania. This bold statement is supported by the fact that acts of stealing public properties and corruption in Tanzania have been increasing exponentially starting from a decade or so after the country’s independence in 1961. It has happened despite existence of laws and enforcement procedures that have been in place during the same period. It can be argued that the law has been successful since offenders have been arrested increasingly over the years. But that may as well mean that it has been possible to arrest more offenders because incidences of corruption increased over time making it easier to come across offenders. It means that a better measure of success of the law is probably a situation whereby fewer offenders are arrested over time meaning that fewer people engage in the evil acts. This argument and counter argument imply that there must be better or alternative mechanisms to prevent the crimes. For instance, the Public Procurement and Regulation Authority now reinforce tendering procedures. The Authority requires tenderers to show evidence of corrupt-free practices as one of the criteria against which their applications for tenders will be evaluated. Admittedly, the task of developing mechanisms to prevent fraudulent practices in Tanzania is complex since the problem has existed for a long time. However, the complexity of the problem is probably a good reason for all Tanzanians to participate in the search for solutions since there is no single institution that is capable of solving the problem alone. The motive for participation in the search is that corruption dwarfs the national economy leading to rampant poverty in the country despite the richness in resources. A possible starting point to the problem is first to understand why some Tanzanians do not embezzle public funds or why they do not engage in corruption practices. There is substantial evidence that Tanzanians exercise much self-restraint not to engage in corruption practices when they are detached from the country. For example, an American government agency has recently assigned a former Tanzanian Citizen to visit Arusha to set up a corrupt-free operations system that will enable the agency to support health programmes in the country effectively. It implies that the gentleman is not corrupt. He is a naturalized American Citizen. It suggests, in part, that the democratic nature of the American government does not provide suitable environments for corruption practices. Democracy can be bluntly translated as effective public participation in government affairs. At the same time, it can be proved that a majority of Tanzanians who live abroad do not engage in corruption practices even if they did so previously while in Tanzania. But it does not surprise me if many revert to corruption practices as soon as they start to carry out transactions in the country. Some foreigners practice corruption as well when they operate in the country. It supports the fact that the country’s environment in the form of operations systems is conducive to fraudulent activities. From a somewhat similar perspective, there was time when Tanzanians cursed the acts of corruption. It was so before Independence and for nearly a decade thereafter. A wind of change surfaced later whereby many Tanzanians considered theft and corruption practices to be acts of ‘heroism’. Levels of such negative heroism were judged by the amount of public funds a person managed to embezzle. Women joined the practice late. They joined all the same. As if such negative public attitude was not enough to cause damage to the national economy. Until recently, some residents of Arusha municipality have been electing persons into offices to give them opportunities deliberately to benefit unlawfully. The voters advanced reasons that other people deserve to benefit since, ‘Those currently in office have already benefitted enough." Never mind if benefits are to be accrued unlawfully. This attitude defeats the notion that man is rational. A possible explanation is that the public acted irrationally in this case because something was wrong with the environment they were operating in. It also means that the public has not genuinely supported efforts to prevent corruption in the country. Therefore, it does not surprise that government has failed to solve the problem to date. Lately, public attitude towards fraudulent practices seems to have come of age. Increasingly, members of the public in town criticize dishonest or corrupt officials bitterly. It means that public attitude towards fraud is finally swinging back to the state it was during pre-independence time. Perhaps there is something good to learn from government operations mechanisms of the time as regards the fight against corruption. The above discussions suggest that Tanzania can check on corruption practices more effectively if government creates operations environments that discourage the evil practices. In particular, government may ensure that all its activity sectors such as ministries and departments in the country involve the public fully in economic development programmes that affect members of the public directly. The Forest and Beekeeping Division (FBD) in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism shows the way. FBD has recently introduced a programme called Joint Forest Management (JFM) whereby respective members of community will co-manage and benefit directly from government-owned forest plantations that are located adjacent to the communities. The Division also facilitates new initiatives whereby members of communities participate in establishing forests in community-owned lands. Again, the communities are empowered to manage and benefit from the forests directly. The programme is called Community Based Forest Management (CBFM). Key to any efforts to fight against corruption in Tanzania is to learn about accountability procedures in less corrupt countries and to empower communities to participate effectively in national economic development activities. The law plays its rightful role as back to ensure that economic development regulations are adhered to.
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By
Ramdhani Kupaza 