Friday, January 29, 2016

Tanzania scores slightly well in graft index

KATARE MBASHIRU
TANZANIA remains the second least corrupt country in East Africa, according to 2015 global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released yesterday by Transparency International.
It is second behind Rwanda in the region. However, globally, Tanzania’s score has dropped two places from 119 in 2015 to 117 last year. The country was ranked at position 117 out of 168 countries and territories ranked on the 2015 index. The index measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in countries and territories worldwide.
Tanzania scored 30 on a scale of zero to 100 — with zero perceived to be highly corrupt and 100 very clean — down one point from 2014’s score of 31. Among the East Africa Community countries, Rwanda was the top performer with a score of 54 at position 44 globally. Its score has, however, increased from 49 in 2014.
Tanzania was second with a score of 30 at position 117; Uganda and Kenya were ranked at position 139 with a score of 25 each. Burundi was at the bottom of the pack with a score of 21 at position 150. The highest scoring country in Sub Saharan Africa was Botswana with a score of 63 followed by Cape Verde (55) and Seychelles (55).
2015 showed that people working together can succeed in the battle against corruption. Although corruption is still rife globally, more countries improved their scores in the 2015 edition.
Overall, two-thirds of the 168 countries on the 2015 index scored below 50, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean). The index covers perceptions of public sector corruption in 168 countries.
The Corruption Perceptions Index is based on expert opinions of public sector corruption. Countries’ scores can be helped by open government where the public can hold leaders to account, while a poor score is a sign of prevalent bribery, lack of punishment for corruption and public institutions that don’t respond to citizens’ needs.
The new report was released barely a day after the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) said it was awaiting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) consent to prosecute some of the 36 grand corruption cases worth billions of shillings, involving high-profile individuals, investigations for which have been completed.
In his maiden press conference since he took over the post, the Acting PCCB Director General, Commissioner of Police (CP) Valentino Mlowola, mentioned four cases that were in advanced stages of investigations.
He said investigations on payments of six million US Dollars to Enterprise Growth Market Advisors (EGMA) as an agent of Stanbic Tanzania -- to win 600 million US Dollar government loan deal on behalf of the bank’s UK-based main unit, Standard Bank, were at advanced stages.
The acting director general further revealed that they were also investigating some cases involving Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL) following the suspension of Director General with Reli Assets Holding Company (RAHCO), Eng. Benhadard Tito, on several allegations, among other cases.

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