’WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION INTENSIFIES THROUGH E-GOVERNMENT’’: We are trying but have not yet found a lasting solution.

                                                                                                                                                      The words in the heading of this article are quoted from a news item which appeared on page 8 of the DAILY NEWS on Friday, June 21^st, 2019, which continued thus: ‘’The Internet Society (ISOC) Tanzania Chapter, sees promising results in the war against corruption, as the Government now embraces online services through the e-government system. The Society’s remarks came at a time when the fifth phase Government has heightened the fight against the vice in the country’’.                                                                          

 is, certainly, most welcome good news. For it provides manifest independent evidence to show that President Magufuli is indeed ‘walking his talk’; because ‘’fighting corruption’’ was one of his firm promises made when he was campaigning for election to the Presidency in 2015.  Then later on in the week, another piece of good news appeared in the SUNDAY NEWS on June 23^rd, 2019; which disclosed the information that:  ‘’The Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), in partnership with the Embassy of Switzerland  and Netherlands, are implementing a special integrity project to step up the fight against graft in the country’’.  In summary form, it was a week of encouragement for the anti-graft campaigners.                                                     

Corruption is, of course, by far the most debilitating illness of ‘good governance’ in any country.  That is why I have chosen this matter as the subject for today’s article, for it enables me to draw attention to two basic facts, namely:  (a) that the fight against corruption in our society is an ongoing battle, i.e. there is no fixed time frame for concluding the war on corruption.  And (b) that it is a battle in which every good citizen is expected to participate. 

My weekly articles in this column are primarily intended to make a contribution, albeit a small one, to the enhancement of general knowledge regarding specified topics. For that reason, in this article, we will focus on the historical aspects, specifically the markedly differing strategies, that have been employed by different individual Presidents under different phases of our country’s Governments, in the on-going fight against corruption.  In this context, the word ‘strategy’ is used to mean ‘the process of carrying out a plan in a skillful way’.

President Nyerere’s strategy: ‘’Tulitutumia sheria kali’’.

Basically, the ‘war against corruption’ in Tanzania was initiated by Mwalimu Nyerere himself, even before he assumed office as the country’s top national leader. It was on 17^th May, 1960, when he delivered his ‘pathfinder speech’ regarding the evils of corruption in the Tanganyika Legislative Council, of which he was a back bench member and leader of the Tanganyika Elected Members Organization (TEMO); wherein he said the following:  ‘’I want to add another enemy to the list of our three declared major enemies of poverty, ignorance, and disease. I think it is necessary to add a fourth enemy, that is corruption . . . Mr. Speaker, I do believe that corruption is much more damaging to the well-being of the people during peace time, than the damage caused by actual war during war time. Corruption must therefore be fought relentlessly’’.             That was Mwalimu Nyerere’s clarion call to action in the war against corruption. He had declared it an ‘enemy of the people’, thus making it obligatory for every good citizen to participate in this war.                   

This must indeed be so, because corruption is like a virus, which is always around to infect any governance system, anywhere in the world.  If this virus faces no resistance or check, it will eat right into the vitals of the system itself, and eventually destroy it. Thus, in any truly democratic polity which observes the rule of law, a strong and vigilant public opinion is the only ‘built-in’ immune provision that can effectively resist, and restrict, the onslaught of the corruption viruses.
 This now reminds me of the ‘words of wisdom’ which came from Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797), who is reported to have said the following: ‘’For evil to triumph, it is only necessary for the good man to do nothing about it’’. His statement appears to underscore the point that the ultimate solution to the problem of corruption is for every citizen to become that ‘’good man’’ who refuses ‘’to do nothing about it’’, by actively participating in the eradication of this vice.

When he subsequently became Head of State and of the Government of Tanganyika, and later of the United Republic of Tanzania, Mwalimu Nyerere did in fact treat the evil of corruption with great determination and near ruthlessness.  He cased Parliament to enact legislation which imposed a mandatory sentence of two years imprisonment (without the alternative of a fine); plus, twenty-four strokes of the cane, twelve upon entry into prison, and twelve more on departure, upon completion of the prison term.  In doing so, his most fervent hope and primary desire, was that these tough measures would act as effective deterrents on prospective offenders, which would therefore produce the desired results of reductions in the numbers of corruption crimes.   But alas, that was not to be.

Many years later in 1995 (ten years after he had voluntarily left office), in his ‘reminiscence speech’ delivered on May Day in Mbeya, when he was narrating how he deliberately caused Parliament to enact the tough legislation referred to above, Mwalimu Nyerere used the following words: ‘’Tulitumia sheria kali sana kupambana na rushwa’’;  He did this in order to put in place a more effective mechanism for combating corruption.   
Unfortunately, however, that strategy did not succeed in eliminating corruption from the country’s governance system. Hence, the fight against corruption had to be continued by his successors in office.

President Benjamin Mkapa’s strategy: ‘’Kuziba mianya ya rushwa’.

When President Benjamin Mkapa was elected to the office of President of the United Republic in October 1995, he quickly came up with the idea of ‘plugging the corruption loopholes’, or ‘kuziba mianya ya rushwa’ in Kiswahili.  In 1996, he appointed the ‘Warioba Commission’ for that purpose, which immediately sat down to work on their assignment, and later produced a report, which they submitted to the President who, in turn, directed the responsible state organs to do the needful. 

President John Magufuli’s strategy: fighting corruption through e-government.

The DAILY NEWS item referred to  above, quoting the Chairman of ISOC Tanzania Chapter Mr. Abibu Ntahigiye,  went on to report the comments he had made, that : ‘’e-government will remove the face-to-face contacts between public  officials and the service seekers,  which create a conducive environment for corruption, and has therefore been a major loophole for corruption . . . We therefore commend the Government for coming up with the e-government system’’.                                                                                                         
It may, however, be much too soon to rejoice in the expectation that this innovation will make any substantial positive contribution to the war against corruption. In my humble opinion, with the advanced technology in the area of financial transactions which we are now witnessing, the said ‘face-to-face contacts' between public officials and the service seekers’, is no longer necessary for corrupt transactions to take place. 

We have not yet found a lasting solution.

As useful background information for our readers, a brief history of the fight against corruption will presumably be appropriate. It is that over the years, sustained efforts have been exerted in the war against corruption, at all levels of our governance system.

(i)   At the political party level:  Right from the time of founding the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) way back in 1954, appropriate steps were taken to include in the party’s Constitution, the provision that constituted a formal pledge,  to be solemnly made by every individual member of that party,  to participate in the fight against corruption. It reads as follows: ‘’Rushwa ni adui wa haki. Sitatoa wala kupokea rushwa’’.                                                             
This particular provision was carried forward to Constitution of TANU’s successor party, the Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM). But, unfortunately, it appears to have had no visible positive impact on the actual behaviour of many of its members, who continue to engage themselves in corrupt activities, particularly relating to electoral corruption, which we will discuss later.                          

(ii) At the government level:  The Union Government has invested appropriately in establishing the necessary anti-corruption infrastructures, including an anti-graft legal regime.  Indeed, even at the time of the country’s independence, the requisite legal regime was already in existence, having been established by the previous colonial Administration. But subsequently,  Act No. 6 of 1971 was enacted by  Parliament, which consolidated all the previous provisions relating to the fight against corruption, and provided a comprehensive definition of the full range of what are regarded as corrupt transactions; plus imposing   severe punishments  on  all those who would be found guilty of having offended this Act.   This Act was amended in 1974, in order to empower the President to establish a state anti-corruption Agency, which gave birth to the present ‘Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau’ (PCCB).  

Engaging in corruption is a criminal offence.

The Government’s intention in setting up such legal regime was, of course, to criminalize corruption. In other words, to make corruption a criminal offence, which is punishable by law. It should therefore be a matter of general concern, that despite this obvious fact, and also despite the fact that the existence of corruption is roundly condemned by everyone as an unmitigated evil;  with everyone  waxing  eloquently on the evils of corruption, yet the corruption menace continues to flourish in our governance system!  This is partly because, when such discussions eventually reach the crucial point of suggesting a solution, that is when everyone seems to run out of ideas, and quickly resorts to saying that ‘’the Government must do something about it’’. Or that ‘’the President must make hard decisions’’.                                            

 It is of course granted, that the   Government has a binding obligation to take appropriate measures to combat corruption. But as the anonymous ‘men of wisdom’ advised a long time ago, ‘’prevention is better than cure’’. Thus, it is far more effective to prevent the occurrence of a crime, than to wait until it is committed, and only then start taking steps to punish the offenders.  As already noted above, crime prevention is a shared responsibility between the Government and the citizens, with the citizens bearing the greater portion of that responsibility.

Corruption in politics.

A major component of the general corruption vice is corruption in politics; and, specifically, corruption during elections.  This could be the primary source of subsequent corruption by some of the elected leaders, who might be seeking to recover what they spent in ‘buying votes.’                                                  

 Tanzania has experienced many election petitions to the High Court being successful, on the ground that the offence of corruption had been proved beyond reasonable doubt. This shows that the problem of electoral corruption in our country is a real one, which needs to be seriously addressed. And here is where the ‘good men’ citizens could effectively play their part, by refusing to put their votes ‘on sale’.                                                                  

The recent enactment of a new law requiring all election candidates to make a sworn declaration of their election expenses, is a step in the right direction towards a solution to this problem.  

We are certainly trying. But we have not yet found a lasting solution.

piomsekwa@gmail.com   / 0754767576.  

Source: Daily News and Cde Msekwa Himself