Over 900 leaders up for screening

By DAILY NEWS Reporter 

THE Public Leaders Ethics Secretariat announced yesterday that it is looking forward to conducting verifications on 946 public leaders’ wealth who submitted declaration forms to date. At least 16,336 public leaders submitted declaration forms for assets and liabilities to the Secretariat as required by the Public

Leadership Code of Ethics, Act of 1995.

However, just 946 will have their wealth scrutinised and verified. Commissioner for Ethics Secretariat Judge (rtd) Harold Nsekela told reporters that his office was set to start the verifications between June 18 and July 18, this year.

According to Judge Nsekela, the Secretariat would check out on those assets that filed on the declaration forms and the actual wealth owned by the leaders under spotlight. “Our aim (Ethics Secretariat) is to ensure every public leader owns the genuine property that corresponds to his or her income,” he said.

Judge Nsekela insisted that the verification exercise aims at cross checking the properties listed on the forms and that which exists on the grounds. He said the secretariat does not intend to accuse anyone but it is trying to make a clear verification on what is filled on the declaration forms and the actual public leaders’ wealth.

He said the process to present statement of declaration of assets and liabilities had since been completed and that the Secretariat would now advance to the next step, which involves verification of submitted information.

Every listed servant will be served a letter from the Ethics Secretariat informing him/her of the verification exercise so that he/she could prepare required documents. The Ethics Secretariat will carry the verification exercise on the value of the properties owned by a concerned leader.

The leaders will also be required to explain how they acquired the wealth. However, he said that the number (946) public servants could increase since the rest of the public servants out of the list might be required to submit further evidences of their properties they declared in the forms.

He further warned the listed servants to avoid transferring property ownership to their children who are above 18 years old saying they will face disciplinary actions. According to Judge Nsekela the listed servants would be required to present their own evidences in order to defend their property possession.

Some of the evidences required include land title deeds, car registration cards, bank statements on loans, certificates for owning shares as well as the cost and values of the shares. Servants with houses and buildings in and out of Tanzania would also be required to present title deeds of the properties and purchasing agreements.

Other required documents include farms licences. Others include licence for running industries and machines management, livestock and mineral extractions as well as other businesses.