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No slowdown on anti-bribery war
2008-04-25 10:04:21
By Editor
Needless to say that the 133bn/- squandered at the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) in dubious External Payment Arrears (EPA) Account is now a fully-proven act of official robbery of resources meant for public use, but then criminally made to end up in private pockets.
Again, almost all emergency power generation contracts, which fleece the country a staggering 21bn/- monthly in capacity charges, are undoubtedly having all hallmarks of graft-peddling.
Coming to major public procurement deals, from BoT\'s twin towers to military radar, they are allegedly clouded by corrupt overtures.
A country`s anti-corruption laws do not discriminate against public resource coffers. Criminality is just it, period.
Indeed, it would look seriously naïve if we were suggesting strictness on scrupulous management of donor funds, but gross leniency and complacence on managing home-grown development funds.
The standard global practice is to take up anti-graft initiatives as institutionalized agenda within the framework of the domicile and global jurisdiction, and in so doing dare call spade a spade.
Corruption, be it grand or petty, is very harmful to the economy for one straight reason. It takes away resources from construction to destruction.
Most saddening, it cripples the ability of the state to provide public goods which mostly cater for the poor tax paying citizens.
Cancer is the other appropriate description of corruption, because it reflects the irredeemable stage which a person may reach when bribery becomes the order of the day, especially for people in the higher echelons of power, who may come to regard white collar crime to be the same as earthly sainthood.
We say so because of the huge amounts of money that keeps being revealed.
The picture that emerges is that some of the suspected culprits have gone beyond normal reasoning to the point of thinking that all that they are being accused of, regardless of the amount involved, is nothing but talking shop agenda.
It is good that we remember at this precise moment, that leadership calls not only for exemplary service and its legitimate rewards, but also demands a lot of personal sacrifice in terms of time and other resources, including money.
A leader who uses a public position for the sake of squandering natural resources rather than sacrificing for the country, is not a leader in the real sense of the word but the exact opposite, and, in fact, he is a national liability.
Time has come for the restoration of the dignity of public office so that the faith of people in their leaders is re-established.
We need to go back to the days when personal integrity was a hallmark of a political leader.
By stating the above, we do not want to pass a blanket judgement on all Tanzanian leaders because there are so many who are committed and loyal to the nation in the strictest sense of the term.
As it goes, one rotten fish spoils the whole lot, and that is why many innocent people may end up falling victim to the wave of accusation and counter-accusation as our society passes through this transition.
We wish to encourage all senior civil servants and public leaders who are honest not to give up but to continue serving the wananchi in a faithful manner.
At the end of the day, we all hope to see a better Tanzania, simply because that is what we all want.
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