Corrupt officials face sanctions

ALVAR MWAKYUSA

THE Prime Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, has warned of sterner action against unethical and corrupt officials as the Ethics Secretariat revealed yesterday that a number of ministers and their deputies had not declared their assets and liabilities as required by the law.

He sounded the warning in Dar es Salaam during a seminar on ethics for ministers and deputy ministers, which was facilitated by the Ethics Secretariat in the President’s Office. “Public leaders and servants ought to adhere to ethics and laid down regulations, failure of which they will face the long arm of the law.

They have to avoid conflicts of interests, selfishness and favouritism when serving the people,” Mr Majaliwa stressed. During the occasion, the Ethics Commissioner, Judge (retired) Salome Kaganda, noted with concern that several ministers and deputies had as well not signed the pledge of integrity certificates.

“The Public Leadership Code of Ethics Act of 1995 requires public leaders to declare their assets and liabilities to the Ethics Secretariat but a number of them have not fulfilled the condition as we speak.

I will present the names before you,” Judge Kaganda told the PM. The commissioner on the other hand hailed President John Magufuli for his purge on underperforming and unethical leaders; noting that moral decay in public service was becoming rampant.

“There are incidences where ministers went as far as ordering permanent secretaries in their ministries to allocate for them funds for personal use, which is a blatant breach of public leadership code of conduct,” she stated.

The retired judge disclosed further that some leaders were fond of providing false information on the declaration forms, forcing the secretariat to cross-check with various state organs to verify the information.

Even with such misconducts, Judge Kaganda said her secretariat “had its hands tied up” due to limited funds and shortage of manpower to enforce ethics in public leadership.

“During the past three years, we have not assessed declaration forms on assets and liabilities filled by pubic leaders due to lack of money. It is useless to have the declaration forms which are not evaluated to ascertain their genuineness.

“What is more; there are over 15,000 leaders who are supposed to be assessed and yet the secretariat has less than 200 workers.

However, if required cash was availed to us we could at least work on 400 leaders,” she explained. On his part, Mr Majaliwa explained that the seminar was not a retreat for ministers but rather a platform to train them on the do’s and don’ts for public leaders.

“The aim of training the ministers is to have in place solid base for public leadership to avoid unethical practices such as conflict of interests which has been cited as among leading vices in the public service,” Mr Majaliwa remarked.

The PM pointed to the fact that ethics in public leadership was a crucial pillar in the development of any nation as it ensured equal treatment of all the people.

Earlier, the Minister of State in the President’s Office (Public Service and Good Governance), Ms Angellah Kairuki, said such trainings will be extended to permanent secretaries and their deputies as well as other civil servants.

Ms Kairuki said her office will put in place proper systems to enforce ethics and curb corruption to achieve good governance.