Tanzania to ban public officials from holding private sector jobs
By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In response to a growing outcry over corruption and abuse of office, Tanzania is working on a new law to ban elected leaders and civil servants from using their position to build business empires and enrich themselves. The law is intended to end numerous scandals that have arisen in the absence of a clear definition of conflict of interest. Gertrude Cyriacus, the Ethics Secretariat’s Assistant Secretary, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation the conflict of interest law would prohibit public officials from transacting private business while in office and ban them from holding positions in private companies. It would include penalties of up to two years in prison if public servants, their families or companies strike business deals with public institutions they manage. She expects it will be enacted before the October 2015 presidential election. “Conflict of interest is still a big challenge in our country. We hope that this law will bring a lasting solution to the problem by ensuring that leaders make decisions in the interest of the public,” Cyriacus said in an interview. Tanzania requires asset disclosures but has no law that specifically defines conflict of interest, a loophole that has left room for scandals. In May William Mhando, the former chief executive of Tanzania’s state-run power company, was charged with abuse of office and forgery after a state audit revealed he had awarded a contract worth more than 884 million Tanzanian shillings ($554,500) to a company he jointly owned with his wife. However the new measure, requested by Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete and six years in the making, leaves major questions unresolved, notably which government agency would have the authority to prosecute and enforce conflict of interest cases. Additionally, it does not address broader concerns over the independence of the Ethics Secretariat, which reports directly to the president and relies on his office for its budget. “We should have clear strategies to ensure that public leaders declare their interests as much as possible, and the agency should have relative autonomy to carry out its activities,” said Benson Bana, a political scientist at the University of Dar es Salaam. Many public corruption scandals have involved members of Kikwete’s ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, which has dominated politics since independence in 1961. NAME AND SHAME The Ethics Secretariat’s primary role is to name and shame. It can summon public officials and give them warnings for violating guidelines for ethical behaviour in office. But it has no powers to prosecute or punish. Its main responsibility is the asset disclosures of politicians and high-level civil servants, documents which are supposed to be open for public inspection though bureaucratic barriers make them nearly impossible to view. Cyriacus often says her agency is understaffed and underfunded. She said in the interview the purpose of the new law was to clearly define what constitutes a business and would require public officials who control businesses to hand over their activities to a blind trust company or to sell their assets. “When such assets are in the hands of a trust body, public leaders will no longer get involved in managing their money,” she said. While Cyriacus would like the Ethics Tribunal within her agency to be given the authority to penalise corrupt officials and is confident she can request additional funding, she said the measure’s primary purpose is not punitive but explanatory. One government official said the challenge Tanzania faces is creating an environment where wealth is not viewed as corrupt and public officers feel free to declare their assets. “A lot of people don’t want to make their legally acquired assets known because they don’t want to be (suspected) of acquiring them illegally. We need to change this mindset. There’s nothing wrong for someone to be rich,” said Boniface Makene, a senior official in the Vice President’s office.
