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Shame on looters of state coffers
2008-04-16 09:34:08
By Editor
Corruption is a universal problem. There isn`t a single country that is not affected by corruption. Each country suffers from the vice by various degrees.
As fate would have it, in today`s world, it is the developing states-otherwise known as poor countries-which are bearing the brunt of the problem.
In Tanzania, the problem was experienced right after independence, meaning that it also existed in the colonial government.
However, the scale of criminal profiteering in our midst has reached alarming levels--given the ongoing revelations--as something new keeps cropping up on each coming day.
It takes two to tango, and grand corruption usually involves multinational corporations which operate hand in hand with local partners.
Just like the Trans-Antlantic and the East African slave trade of the past centuries involved foreigners as well as local chiefs, the corrupt pay offs that are rocking our society also have a substantial foreign element.
Much as this is the reality, we have to agree that the local elites, who are championing this illegal game that is milking our state coffers dry, should well remember that they are directly answerable to the wananchi.
When assessing the scales of crimes of profit in our society that keep being exposed by the media, one can safely conclude that we have reached a stage whereby grand corruption has become a way of life for many a topmost civil servant.
When signing major national contracts involving the exploitation of precious national resources, the greater number of those responsible no longer sticks to international corporate codes, and instead turns a blind eye even to common sense considerations.
Imagine a person selling a cow. If this person takes the cow to the home of a potential buyer, urging the would be purchaser to have the animal, then it is clear that the buyer will buy the cow strictly on exploitative terms.
For someone to travel all the way to a foreign country to sign a hastily prepared major national contract in the home of a foreign investor, resembles the above story of the man selling a cow. Now, even an illiterate peasant does not do that.
The corrupt environment that we are now in betrays the fact that our internal structures that are supposed to ensure that government money is well guarded and utilized have been weakened to the extent of arousing public mistrust.
The task that is ahead of us is to curb grand corruption, see to it that the major players who are milking this country dry face the wrath of the law, and that the credibility of our watchdogs and law enforcing organs is restored.
We also urge the authorities of those countries where the loot is being banked or transferred to act in solidarity with the people of Tanzania by all possible legal means.
As for our own kith and kin who are doing this to us, they have to remember that history will not be kind to them.
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