nngu007
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 2, 2010
- 15,862
- 5,797
5 July 2011
Dar es Salaam - My column, going by the above title last week, evoked the following response from a reader working with a donor organization; and I quote:"Professor, I follow this column every Wednesday and let me admit that these articles are quite informative and well communicated. Thank you for these well-written and diligent pieces. Today's topic is quite interesting as it diagnoses the persistent ethical decadence of the Tanzanian Public Service.
"In my engagement with the GoT, I have never seen a work plan which is not allowance - per diem driven. Activities not only lack linkages to development results, but make no logical sense at all. It is not unusual to find a wok plan in which the entire budget is allocated to such things as endless trainings, workshops, study tours and travels to everywhere. One could conclude that work plans of different MDAs are income generating projects for senior and middle-cadre of the so called public servants".
Perhaps it would be helpful to expand on the deadly sins alluded to and to show their deleterious implications. Gluttony means excessive and usually extravagant indulgence of the appetite for food and drink. This is particularly deplorable in a country like Tanzania where the majority of the population subsists on one meal a day and children go to school on empty stomachs. Gluttony here means an exclusive concern with ones stomach and those of ones own family normally taking it from those who need it most
Greed refers again to an obsessive desire and relentless pursuit of wealth, status and power for its own sake and without a greater social purpose. Once in power you have arrived! This is reflected in the formation of bloated cabinets composed of cronies, ostentatious living (two shangingis for ministers) and indulgence in luxurious cars and offices. They have arrived!
Sloth simply refers to laziness of the body and mind as well as indifference to duty. This was recently demonstrated in the drafting of the rejected Constitutional Review Bill, which did not show even a modicum of seriousness on the part of the Attorney General's office. The poor attendance of parliamentary sessions, mediocre contributions on the part of some MPs and outright sleeping in the chamber by some others stand as testimony to sloth. They have arrived!
Allowances are currently projected to consume nearly 1 trillion or eight per cent of the budget. They were originally conceived in the context of the World Bank and IMF's Structural Adjustment and austerity programmes, which blocked increases in real wages. In response to pressures for higher incomes first, then Minister for Finance Cleopa Msuya said: "each has to carry his own burden". And later, retired President Ali Hassan Mwinyi (alias Mzee Ruksa) was heard to declare: "kila mtu afanye anavoona hapo alipo" (you should do what you can wherever you are)!
Allowances were originally intended to be selective incentives for senior civil servants and parastatal executives so that they could compete with their counterparts in the burgeoiening private sector! Later on, when MPs questioned the prudence and fairness of such incentives, they were also co-opted into the scheme.
They have now become ardent defenders of what they initially opposed. Meanwhile the ordinary wages have been frozen causing discontent, unrest and persistent tension among the other workers. Allowances should, now, be seen essentially as part of the ethical decay that has been steadily consuming the public service.
Professor Mwesiga Baregu lectures at Saut
Dar es Salaam - My column, going by the above title last week, evoked the following response from a reader working with a donor organization; and I quote:"Professor, I follow this column every Wednesday and let me admit that these articles are quite informative and well communicated. Thank you for these well-written and diligent pieces. Today's topic is quite interesting as it diagnoses the persistent ethical decadence of the Tanzanian Public Service.
"In my engagement with the GoT, I have never seen a work plan which is not allowance - per diem driven. Activities not only lack linkages to development results, but make no logical sense at all. It is not unusual to find a wok plan in which the entire budget is allocated to such things as endless trainings, workshops, study tours and travels to everywhere. One could conclude that work plans of different MDAs are income generating projects for senior and middle-cadre of the so called public servants".
Perhaps it would be helpful to expand on the deadly sins alluded to and to show their deleterious implications. Gluttony means excessive and usually extravagant indulgence of the appetite for food and drink. This is particularly deplorable in a country like Tanzania where the majority of the population subsists on one meal a day and children go to school on empty stomachs. Gluttony here means an exclusive concern with ones stomach and those of ones own family normally taking it from those who need it most
Greed refers again to an obsessive desire and relentless pursuit of wealth, status and power for its own sake and without a greater social purpose. Once in power you have arrived! This is reflected in the formation of bloated cabinets composed of cronies, ostentatious living (two shangingis for ministers) and indulgence in luxurious cars and offices. They have arrived!
Sloth simply refers to laziness of the body and mind as well as indifference to duty. This was recently demonstrated in the drafting of the rejected Constitutional Review Bill, which did not show even a modicum of seriousness on the part of the Attorney General's office. The poor attendance of parliamentary sessions, mediocre contributions on the part of some MPs and outright sleeping in the chamber by some others stand as testimony to sloth. They have arrived!
Allowances are currently projected to consume nearly 1 trillion or eight per cent of the budget. They were originally conceived in the context of the World Bank and IMF's Structural Adjustment and austerity programmes, which blocked increases in real wages. In response to pressures for higher incomes first, then Minister for Finance Cleopa Msuya said: "each has to carry his own burden". And later, retired President Ali Hassan Mwinyi (alias Mzee Ruksa) was heard to declare: "kila mtu afanye anavoona hapo alipo" (you should do what you can wherever you are)!
Allowances were originally intended to be selective incentives for senior civil servants and parastatal executives so that they could compete with their counterparts in the burgeoiening private sector! Later on, when MPs questioned the prudence and fairness of such incentives, they were also co-opted into the scheme.
They have now become ardent defenders of what they initially opposed. Meanwhile the ordinary wages have been frozen causing discontent, unrest and persistent tension among the other workers. Allowances should, now, be seen essentially as part of the ethical decay that has been steadily consuming the public service.
Professor Mwesiga Baregu lectures at Saut
