President Orders Release of Donor Report On Graft

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

Tom Mosoba

14 May 2011

Dodoma — President Jakaya Kikwete has ordered the immediate publication of a corruption report whose delayed release by the government had soured relations with donor countries, some of whom threatened to withhold aid.Mr Kikwete directed that the National Governance and Corruption Survey report be made public without delay, on the day the government signed an agreement with 12 donor countries and institutions, entailing an injection of $562 million (about Sh840 billion) as budget support for the Financial Year 2011/12.

The President’s order was announced yesterday in Dodoma by Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda during a joint General Budget Support (GBS) meeting, attended by the 12 donor countries’ envoys in the country.

The GBS members, namely African Development Bank, Canada, Denmark, European Union (EU), Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and World Bank are to immediately avail $453 million for the June Budget.

However, another commitment of $100 million would only be released subject to fulfilment of certain conditions other than corruption, including opening up infrastructure and fully embracing the private sector. This year’s Budget funding is $80 million less, following the withdrawal of two countries from the GBS group.

Compiled in 2009 by the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), the release to the public of corruption survey report funded by the Danish government, was reportedly awaiting Cabinet approval.

“This morning I met the President who gave orders for its release … I hope it won’t be an impediment now,” said Mr Pinda, who later told reporters that the Mr Kikwete made the decision on public interest. The PM, however, did not give the date the report would be published.

The Danish deputy head of mission, Mr Jesper Kammersgaard, told The Citizen on Saturday in an exclusive interview that findings and recommendations of the report were meant to identify culprits and facilitate better mechanisms to end corruption, including petty cases that are the greatest hindrance to effective public service delivery.

Yesterday’s joint meeting was held on the sidelines of the weeklong government consultative forum and was attended by several Cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries and other senior State officials. Mr Kikwete has been chairing the consultative meeting but did not attend yesterday’s GBS function in the morning, opting instead to pass his message through the PM.

The rush to publish the graft report would likely be viewed as a deliberate move to pacify the donor community, with the GBS chairman Ms Ingunn Klepsvik and the head of the European Union (EU) Mr Tim Clarke affirming yesterday that the war against corruption must be seen to bear tangible results if the government is to restore full confidence of the country’s leadership.

Ms Klepsvik, who is the Norwegian ambassador, noted that the government had achieved barely half of the objectives agreed on in the past joint performance assessment framework. Pending reforms include improved business environment, enhanced domestic accountability and better quality and equity of public services.

She warned of what she saw as a worrying trend in which the government was borrowing more for recurrent expenditure while its domestic revenue collection was stagnating.

Said she: “Without clear evidence that the fight against corruption remains very active, development partners will find it hard to convince capitals that GBS is an appropriate aid instrument. Maintaining an active fight against corruption is enshrined in the new partnerships framework memorandum for future GBS that we will be signing today.”

Indeed, a joint statement released later in the evening on behalf of the GBS members appeared to peg their future engagement with Tanzania on how the government drives forward the anti-corruption agenda and good governance.

The statement read, in part: “A number of high level corruption cases between 2000 and 2008 damaged Tanzania’s reputation. The government took some decisive actions that helped to restore confidence, but it remains a concern that some of these cases have not been resolved.”

Even though no specific cases were mentioned, the government has been battling to clear its image in high profile corruption scandals revolving around the central bank’s Sh133 billion External Payment Account (EPA), the $172 million Richmond emergency power supply contract, the $40 million Radar deal and other questionable deals worth billions of shillings in the mining sector.

Several suspects have been charged in court in connection with some of these scandals while the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) is currently on a campaign to eject from its top leadership, officials whose dubious conduct allegedly erode the party’s credibility.

The Parliament is also due to table the delayed Information Bill as well as the Procurement Bill, all seen as critical in the push for transparency and accountability.

In his speech, Mr Pinda urged for continued donor-government collaboration to enhance service delivery and pledged sustained efforts to end corruption. He said more efforts would also be directed towards agriculture as the vehicle to open up the economy for the poor.

“I, however, fear that a decline in donor support could hamper our progress and dent success made in eradicating extreme poverty. We are already behind meeting most MDGs (Millennium development goals),” he said.

Earlier, finance minister Mustafa Mkulo assured the donors that action would be taken on recommendations by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG), whose reports have been presented to Parliament for action.

This was apparently in reference to German envoy’s query on why action appeared lacking despite yearly CAG reports exposing huge rot in public resource management.

Germany’s head of division for development cooperation, Ms Gisela Habel, also raised concern why no action has been forthcoming on recommendations to reduce expenditure on government per-diems and allowances.

Both Mr Clarke and the DFID representative Darren Welsh said their governments back home were keen on seeing value for money for each dollar released by the tax payer through domestic accountability.

The high level meeting was attended by, among others, the BoT Governor Benno Ndulu and PCCB Director General Edward Hoseah.

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