The Tanzanian water and sewerage authority ranks fifth in the corruption ‘List of Shame” published by the regional NGO Concern for Development Initiatives in Africa (ForDIA).
The report is the second comprehensive local study on corruption perception compiled by ForDIA.
The Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) is the most corrupt public institution according to the report, followed by the police, judiciary, and licensing and revenue, in second, third and fourth place respectively.
Speaking at the launch of the report [on 30 December 2009], ForDIA Tanzania Chapter Executive Director Mr Bubelwa Kaiza said the study carried out in 40 districts had shown that corruption levels were still “very high” and remained a major concern among Tanzanians.
Mr Kaiza said corruption perception had dropped by 3 per cent compared to the 2008 findings. [...] For every 100 people, 48 were affected by corruption. Fifty-one per cent of the respondents said they were affected in the earlier study.
Mr Kaiza said 41 per cent of the respondents pointed cited greed and selfishness as the leading causes of corrupt behaviour followed by low salaries (28 per cent) and poverty (17 per cent).
Other factors were weak civic competence (8 per cent), service fast-tracking (4.4 per cent), immorality (2 per cent), abuse of power (1 per cent) and response to foreign policy (0.1 per cent).
The study carried between March and July [2009], focused on service delivery by local government authorities in the 40 districts in 10 regions namely Mwanza, Tabora, Singida, Iringa, Arusha, Dodoma, Coast, Kigoma, Shinyanga and Ruvuma.
Mr Kaiza said the police, Judiciary, health, lands and housing and natural resources were the leading areas of bribery, in that order, at the grassroots level. Tanesco did not feature prominently here largely because most rural areas have yet to be connected to the national power grid.
He noted that corruption awareness among the public was as high as 90 per cent, implying that people frequently gave or received bribes.
The findings also suggest that law enforcement agencies are virtually non-existent at the village level, making it difficult for ordinary people to report corruption.
[...]
The report comes barely a month after Global perception Index (CPI) reported that Tanzania has slipped 24 places in the global corruption ranking over the last one year, reflecting the country’s faltering effort in the campaign against the vice.
The country dropped from position 102 in 2008, to 126 in the 2009 Global Corruption Perception Index (CPI), whose results were released [in November 2009] by the Berlin-based anti-graft agency, Transparency International (TI).
According to the findings of the respected anti-corruption watchdog, Tanzania posted its first worst performance in recent years in the annual ranking of the 180 countries surveyed worldwide.
However, with the exception of Rwanda, Tanzania did better in the region, ranking higher than Kenya (146) and Uganda (130) in the global index. Kenya improved by one position, while Uganda dropped four places.
Rwanda, which was ranked the same as Tanzania in 2008, is now considered the least corrupt country in the East Africa, coming in at an impressive 89th place.
For more on corruption on Tanzania go the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre.
Source: The Citizen / allAfrica.com, 31 Dec 2009
