Samia officiates new weapon for triumphant anti-graft crusade

ANTI-GRAFT crusade was intensified i early last year with the launch of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan (NACSAP III)’s third phase through which the government seeks to improve public service delivery. Vice-President, Ms Samia Suluhu Hassan, officiated at the five-year plan in Dar es Salaam, asking the government institutions responsible for the implementation of the NACSAP III to clean themselves before starting dealing with others in the fight against corruption. “First take the plank out of your own eye and then you will clearly see and remove the speck from your brother's eye,” she said, quoting a verse in the Bible. Ms Samia said execution of the 2015 Development Vision will succeed should the public servants perform their duties by embracing integrity and getting rid of corrupt practices, charging that Tanzanians had previously experienced massive abuse of their rights due to corruption. “It was normal to hear about people having their lands grabbed due to rampant corruption among the government officials,” she noted with concern, explaining further that the country has been losing investors due to corruption. Government leaders, she charged, used to force prospective investors to corrupt them as a condition to handle their applications for investments in the country, “... as a result the country lost potential investors who were against corruption ... we will ensure that this situation comes to an end.” She called on the Prevention and Combatting of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and the National Audit Office of Tanzania (NAOT) to closely monitor execution of government funded projects, saying waiting for the project completion is an ineffective strategy to curb embezzlement of public resources. PCCB Director General, Mr Valentino Mlowola, noted that with NACSAP III, the fight against the vice will be speeded up, assuring better services to the citizens. “Compared to the first and second strategic plans, we have come up with improvements that will see us winning the war,” he said. Among others, he said, under NACSAP III all the private and public sectors as well as the general public will be taken on board in its implementation. The document has put in place mechanism for regular assessment of the plan implementation to ensure that it yields the desired results. The NACSAP II, implemented between 2008 and 2011, aimed at building on the achievements of NACSAP I and addressing challenges encountered earlier by becoming more focused, robust, relevant and inclusive. In collaboration with other anti-corruption stakeholders, the programme helped to set up, organise and mainstream sustainable mechanisms and responses against corruption with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) as the main financier and technical partner. NACSAP II also sought to complement and integrate anticorruption strategies into the core public sector reforms like the Public Sector Reform Programme, Legal Sector Reform Programme, Local Government Reform Programme and Public Financial Management Reform Programme, in strengthening and instituting good governance, transparency, accountability, integrity, efficiency and improved public service delivery.