Zanzibar Declaration up for detailed review
2008-05-27 09:52:34
By Correspondent Gadiosa Lamtey
The government is contemplating a comprehensive review of the code of ethical practice for leaders in the public service, a cabinet minister has said.
According to Sophia Simba, Minister of State in the President`s Office (Good Governance), the plan is to revisit the Zanzibar Declaration and draw up a new set of ethical guidelines for the leaders.
She hinted on the move when asked by The Guardian in Dar es Salaam yesterday on the government`s view of growing concern mainly from academics that conflicts of interest have made the once famous declaration hinder the smooth execution of good governance in Tanzania.
The declaration, whose fiercest critics include founding President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, was hastily promulgated by the ruling CCM in Zanzibar in early 1990s to allow public leaders do business.
It was adopted during the second-phase Alhaj Ali Hassan Mwinyi presidency and effectively replaced the 1967 Arusha Declaration, widely viewed as a blueprint for the country`s socialist march.
``CCM has directed the government to work on the Zanzibar Declaration and we are in the process of doing just that,`` explained Simba.
CCM publicity secretary John Chiligati later clarified that the ruling party had issued the directive (to the government) at its previous high-level organs, ``with a view to checking the escalating incidence of conflicts of interest among public leaders doubling as politicians and members of the business community``.
``The government will also have to look into existing legislation on the conduct of public leaders to make sure that there is a clear demarcation line between business and public duties,`` Chiligati, who is also Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development minister, said in a telephone interview.
Dr Bohelo Lunogelo, head of the think-tank Economic and Social Research Foundation told a recent governance forum in Dar es Salaam that there was a need for the government to revisit the Zanzibar Declaration and make public leaders adhere to codes of ethical conduct.
He said the move would help create a definitive boundary between public leadership and business, adding that lack of that distinction has lately generated serious conflicts of interest among leaders.
Several key government figures have been associated with gross abuses of public office while endeavouring to serve both the people and their businesses simultaneously, noted the ESRF executive.
He explained that the Zanzibar Declaration allowed civil servants and other public leaders to conduct business but fell short of qualifying the size, value and type of business to be owned by the leaders.
``That makes it likely that it will be extremely difficult for public leaders now also engaged full-scale in business while still in office to be disciplined,`` observed Dr Lunogelo, adding that casting a fresh glance at the declaration would be in the national interest.
``It seems that leadership ethics have been all but dumped in Tanzania. This is proved by the current trend that shows large numbers of cabinet ministers and other senior public servants being reported as owning huge businesses,`` he observed.
He explained that leadership and business were two contradicting issues which no single person could engage in fully and efficiently enough at the same time.
Asked for comment on the issue yesterday, Prof Mwesiga Baregu of the University of Dar es Salaam challenged opposition parties to demand from CCM an immediate review of the Zanzibar Declaration ``because most prominent local businesspersons doubling as politicians are members of the ruling party``.
``One thing opposition parties need to deal with most and right now is to push the government into looking afresh into the (Zanzibar) declaration,`` noted the long-serving political science guru.
The national Chairman of the opposition Civic United Front, Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, blamed the prevailing conflicts of interest mainly on what he termed shortcomings in the law requiring leaders to declare their assets and liabilities upon assuming office as most do not act similarly at the end of their tenures.