Invisible
Robot
- Feb 11, 2006
- 9,075
- 7,878
Written by Ramadhani Kupaza
There are numerous varieties of corrupt practices in Tanzania. The more apparent are corrupt practices that are based on bribery in the form of cash or in kind. Individuals are said to be corrupt in this case if they bribe or they accept bribes from others. It follows that there are numerous effects of corrupt practices as well.
Much has been said this year about corruption in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals as well as in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs. Issues include the famous Richmond Company financial scandal that is associated with TANESCO in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals. Then there is EPA and other Bank of Tanzania financial scandals in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs.
It is recalled that, the Bank of Tanzania financial scandals were first revealed as acts of nepotism whereby top officials in government had influenced or rather corrupted management of the institution to employ their family members in key positions.
It reminds of root causes of some corrupt practices in Tanzania. Said differently, some of the corrupt practices observed in the country today are a result of corrupt practices of the past. For instance, top government officials and wealthy families bribed managers of the education system in the past to ensure that their family members advanced academically at the expense of capable students from poor families who depended on merit to advance. Better students who belonged to poor families were simply replaced in favour of the children from well-to-do families. It happened partly because there were limited schools at the time. It reflects the concept of "survival of the fittest."
Other people have now joined top government officials and rich families to corrupt the remains of the country's education system. Many parents and students in collaboration with underpaid teachers or greed school management steal examinations consistently to enable their choice students to qualify for further education. Unfortunately, even capable students are now influenced to cheat or steal examination papers rather than study to prepare for examinations. The term "education" is losing its meaning in Tanzania.
Corruption does not end at the education level. Top government officials corrupt the government's labour system to award their children posts in prestigious institutions like the Bank of Tanzania. Qualification for the job is secondsry in that case. Therefore, it does not surprise that many Tanzanians performances at work are of sub-standards.
In town, purchasing personnel from various institutions or enterprises obtain receipts for items they purchase which may show prices that are several times more than what they actually pay. The difference between the actual and forged prices becomes extra revenue that belongs to the personnel in charge of the purchases. Or, revenues accrued from the difference can be shared among colleagues. Meanwhile, the traders for the items or service providers are happy to write hiked prices on the receipts because that way they can attract such and more corrupt personnel to purchase stuff from their enterprises. Needless to mention, the practice disrupts budgeting efforts.
Some Traders have been involved in writing hiked prices on receipts so much that it has become their way of doing things. For instance, the traders have been cheating for so long that they ask even foreigners or people they do not know if they wish to write hiked figures on receipts for the items they purchase. It implies that some traders in Tanzania believe that it is normal for purchasing personnel everywhere in the world to write hiked prices of items or services they purchase in order for them to make personal gains. Meanwhile, the traders forget that some of the purchasing personnel buy the items to stock at their own enterprises in which case it becomes ridiculous for them to cheat cheat themselves.
Tanzanians often learn of incomplete or improperly implemented public development projects like roads because officials use some of the budgeted project funds for their personal purposes. The officials take what has come to be known as "ten percent" of the total funds that are budgeted for a particular project. The most greed officials steal more than ten percent of the funds.
Actually, corruption is so entrenched in every Ministry and every sector of the economy and civil society in Tanzania that corrupt practices qualify to make a governing system of its own at the national level. Such system would be similar to what people in other countries with corrupt governing systems call "parallel economy."
At household levels, husbands and wives but particularly wives in towns are said to corrupt family financial transaction systems that are initiated by their husbands in order to acquire personal gains. For example, there are reports that a wife can convince a contractor for a family building to charge her husband more than the actual cost of construction materials or services. The difference in revenue between the actual and hiked costs becomes the woman's personal share of the transactions. In fact, similar cheating is said to happen between fathers and sons and among relatives or close friends. Corruption has become some sort of a culture in Tanzania.
Effects of corrupt practices are diverse. Some of the people implicated in corrupt practices in Tanzania have lost their lives mysteriously before they were tried in the court of law. In addition, many implicated prominent people including Cabinet Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Directors and business persons have lost their status in society because some of them have been forced to resign unceremoniously from their public posts and others have been prosecuted or convicted. These are some of the lessons to show that corruption can destroy not only economies but also human dignity and lives.
The varieties of corrupt practices reveal that many Tanzanians have lost their basic morals as social beings. It suggests that instruments other than the existing Prevention and Combating Corruption Bureau (PCCB) are needed to restore the morals.