Tanzania: anti corruption survey volume 1

The United Republic of Tanzania

THE PREVENTION AND COMBATING OF CORRUPTION BUREAU

NATIONAL GOVERNANCE AND CORRUPTION SURVEY

2009 REPORT

Volume 1: ANALYSIS OF MAIN FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

and

21st November 2009

F A C E I T

in Association with

DAR/MCC Dar Management and Computing Centre

ii National Governance and Corruption Survey – 2009 Report: Volume 1

CONTENTS CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................ ii LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... iv ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................ v PREFACE .......................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. viii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................... ix SECTION I: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1

I.1 Background and Purpose of the Survey ............................................................... 1 I.2 Objectives and Scope of the Survey ..................................................................... 3 I.3 Survey Methodology and Sample ........................................................................ 4 I.4 Profile of Survey Respondents ............................................................................. 5 I.5 Limitation of the Survey ...................................................................................... 6

SECTION II: MAIN FINDINGS OF THE SURVEY ........................................................ 7 Chapter 1: RESPONDENTS UNDERSTANDING OF CORRUPTION ................... 7 Chapter 2: PREVALENCE, SERIOUSNESS AND TRENDS .................................. 9 2.1 Experience of Corruption ..................................................................................... 9 2.2 Causes of Corruption .......................................................................................... 12 2.3 Perpetrators of Corruption .................................................................................. 13 2.4 Seriousness of Corruption .................................................................................. 15 2.5 Trends in Corruption .......................................................................................... 17

Chapter 3: QUALITY OF SERVICE DELIVERY, HONESTY AND INTEGRITY . 19 3.1 Quality and Efficiency of Public Service Delivery ............................................ 19 3.2 Honesty and Integrity of Public Institutions ...................................................... 22 3.3 Honesty and Integrity of Private Sector ............................................................. 23 3.4 Perception of the Private sector on Policies, Laws and ...................................... 24 Regulations ................................................................................................................... 24 3.5 Public Service working environment and administration .................................. 25

Chapter 4: GOVERNANCE AND CORRUPTION IN KEY SECTORS .................... 29 4.1 Judiciary System and Legal Sector .................................................................... 29 4.2 Police Force ........................................................................................................ 30 4.3 Education Sector ................................................................................................ 32 4.4 Health Sector ...................................................................................................... 34 4.5 Public Utilities .................................................................................................... 35 4.6 Other Governance Indicators ................................................................................ 36

Chapter 5: FIGHTING CORRUPTION ....................................................................... 39 5.1 Political Will ...................................................................................................... 39 5.2 Public Agencies in the Fight Against Corruption .............................................. 40 5.3 Corruption Reporting System............................................................................. 40 5.4 Sources of Information ....................................................................................... 43

SECTION III: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................. 45 Chapter 6: CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................... 45

Chapter 7: RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................ 48 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 50

iii National Governance and Corruption Survey – 2009 Report: Volume 1

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Survey Sample and Response Rate………………………….. 3 Table 2: Percentage distribution of respondents

associating corruption to various definitions …………………. 5 Table 3: Forms of gratification given ………….………….………………… 7 Table 4: Key Problems in Tanzania

(As reported by households, public officials and enterprises) ……… 13 Table 5: Percentage distribution of enterprises reporting ………….…………. 18 Table 6: Households Perception on Obstacles to Quality ……………… 26

Health Services Table 7: Respect for Women Rights ………….………….………….……… 33

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Distribution of Households by Level of Incidence of …………. 8

Making Unofficial Payments (Percent) Figure 2: Relationship between Grand and Petty Corruption …………. 10 Figure 3: Percentage distribution of enterprises indicating the …………. 11

initiators of bribery Figure 4: Percentage distribution enterprise reporting frequency of ……. 17

Government procurement tenders being awarded in a clear and efficient manner

Figure 5: Percentage distribution of firms reporting the availability …….. 21

of rules and regulations affecting firms Figure 6: Households’ Perception on Obstacles to Using Courts …..…… 26

in Tanzania Figure 7: Households' Perception of Quality of Education Services …………. 28 Figure 8: Households’ Perception of Quality of Health Services …………. 29 Figure 9: Distribution of Households with Indication where …………. 36

to Report a Corrupt Act Figure 10: Distribution of Households by Reasons for not …………. 37

Reporting a Corrupt Act

v National Governance and Corruption Survey – 2009 Report: Volume 1

ABBREVIATIONS CPI Corruption Perception Index as developed by Transparency

International

ESRF Economic and Social Research Foundation

FACEIT Front Against Corrupt Elements in Tanzania

ICP International Cooperating Partners

LA Local Authorities

MDAs Ministries, Departments and Agencies

MKUKUTA Mkakati wa Kuondoa Umaskini Tanzania (Poverty Reduction)

MP Member of Parliament

NACSAP National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan

NAO National Audit Office

NFGG National Framework for Good Governance

NGACS National Governance And Corruption Survey

NGOs Non Governmental Organizations

NSSF National Social Security Fund

PCCB Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau

PPA Public Procurement Act

PPRA Public Procurement Regulatory Authority

TANESCO Tanzania Electricity Supply Company

TNBS Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics

TPC Tanzania Postal Corporation

TRA Tanzania Revenue Authority

TTCL Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited

URT United Republic of Tanzania

TRANSLATIONS

“TAKRIMA” Kiswahili word for payment or material items (including food & drinks) given ostensibly as an unsolicited “goodwill” gesture but in reality, for a favour.

“BAKSHISH” Kiswahili word for payment or an article given as a gift after

receiving good service from someone.

vi National Governance and Corruption Survey – 2009 Report: Volume 1

PREFACE

The problem of corruption in our country is not new and certainly it did not start with my

Government i.e. the Fourth Phase Government of The United Republic of Tanzania. Past

Governments have dealt with it in various ways, although corruption remains a problem

in our country, as it is in the whole world, albeit in varying degrees. To tackle corruption,

the country should generally be well governed – that is to have good governance in the

country. This study, National Governance and Corruption Survey is very appropriate in

that sense.

To understand the problem of good governance in general and corruption in particular, it

is important to conduct studies, which will generate facts and indicate appropriate way

forward in the fight against the vice. Without appropriate studies, the fight against

corruption cannot be scientific. The National Governance and Corruption Survey is an

effort towards that end.

In my inaugural speech to Parliament in 2005, I said the following and I quote: we will

accelerate the war on corruption in a more scientific way and by addressing its root

courses …. But all this will not account much if the public is not cooperative. I ask the

full cooperation of citizens in the war on corruption. This report is part of implementation

of that speech, to fight corruption in a more scientific way. The public have indeed

cooperated in giving information to the consultants, who covered all the regions of

Tanzania Mainland in this study.

In 1996, a study similar to this was undertaken by the Third Phase Government. A

Presidential Commission of Inquiry Against Corruption was appointed to carry out a

study on the status of corruption in the country as part of a strategy of the government to

enhance integrity and accountability. The commission released its report one year later

and recommended a number of things as a way of tackling the vice. In 1999 the

government formulated a National Framework on Good Governance (NFGG) to facilitate

the coordination of reforms designed to foster Good Governance and improve public

service delivery. The National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan (NACSAP) was

formulated as a component of the NFGG to increase efforts in corruption prevention. In

2002, the Annual State of Corruption in Tanzania Report was published as part of the

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follow-up of the 1996 report. However, this report was less detailed and hence the need

for more detailed and thorough baseline report on the problem of corruption in the

country. The National Governance and Corruption Survey is broad, detailed and captures

important parameters which gives an insight into the problem of corruption in the country

to date.

The National Governance and Corruption Survey add to our understanding of the vice in

the country and offers opportunities for tackling the same. Three surveys, i.e. household,

public servants and enterprises were carried out and some of the main findings are that:

despite the efforts enumerated above, corruption is widespread and a major impediment

to development efforts; the leading cause of corruption is greed among public servants

and business people; in some sectors of public service, corruption has become a way of

life; the institutions which are central in safeguarding good governance like the police

and the judiciary are ranked highest in perpetrating corruption. The indication one gets is

that: my Government have still a long way to go in eradicating this vice and I want to

assure the public that we are equal to the task.

Some of the recommendations are that: more research be carried out on those institutions

which ranked highest and determine the root causes of corruption; the PCCB be

strengthened to be equal to the increasing tasks and increase public awareness on the vice

and elicit their support.

We will take the results of the survey seriously and implement the recommendations

therein to contain corruption in our country.

I would like to thank the Government of Denmark, for providing financial support, which

made this study possible. I would like also to commend the consultants who did a good

job in research and compilation of the report. Last but not least I would like to recognize

the contribution of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau, who on behalf

of the Government commissioned and supervised the survey.

Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete

President of the United Republic of Tanzania

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This report has been prepared by many individuals under the general supervision of Mr.

Enock L. Kamuzora, Chairman of FACEIT, the lead consultant, and Cletus P.B. Mkai

who led the project team. Other members of the project team were: Professor A.S.

Mawenya, D. Ntukamazina, B.S. Sreekumar, Dr. V.E. Muba, S. Ngallaba, R.

Rutabingwa, Dr. M.M.P. Bundara, M.R. Lugongo and S.J. Chavda.

The consultants benefited from contributions made by the Technical Committee

especially set up for this assignment by the Prevention and Combating of Corruption

Bureau (PCCB): Dr. Vincent Kihiyo (Chairman), Abdallah Mlangwa, Oscar Hosea,

Sabina Seja, Doto Nkonga, Stephen Ndaki, Ahmed Makbel, Mary Rusimbi, Dr. Flora

Kessy, Daniel Kobb, Tim Harris, Emily Poskett and Jack Titsworth.

During fieldwork stage, Grace Morgan, a World Bank consultant, gave valuable insights

during her visit.

Christian Karstensen, First Secretary (Governance and Political Issues) at the Royal

Danish Embassy, provided helpful comments throughout.

Dr. Edward Hoseah, the Director General of PCCB, actively participated to discuss the

draft Report during the first of the five zonal workshops staged in Dar es Salaam, thereby

generating a constructive debate moderated by FACEIT’s Vice-Chairman, E.N.

OleKambainei.

PCCB’s three counter-part staff, Sada Mzimba, Benno Shunda and Abdallah Kitwana

worked long hours throughout the assignment.

We acknowledge with thanks the involvement of the 12 field supervisors and 37 field

interviewers who were employed by FACEIT to carry out the actual fieldwork.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

[A] BACKGROUND Current government initiatives to promote good governance and to fight corruption in Tanzania can be traced back to April 1995 when retired President Nyerere held a press conference in Dar es Salaam during which he pointed out the evil of corruption impacting Tanzania. Corruption became the ruling part manifesto for elections in November 1995. Thereafter, in January 1996, following the establishment of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry Against Corruption. Ten months later the Commission published its Report, popularly known as the Warioba Report, which is hailed as one of the most respected and commended analysis of corruption by any African state. The Warioba Report marked the opening up of public discussion on corruption in Tanzania and paved the way for extensive public sector reforms intended to enhance good governance and combat corruption. Since 1996 significant improvements have been achieved within good governance in Tanzania. A sound regulatory framework has been established, increased political freedoms are present and the Government is to a large extent held accountable by the opposition, civil society, media and the Parliament. In particular, the Parliament and media outlets have played a much more active role in domestic politics during recent years leading to increased scrutiny of the Government. Tanzania’s performance in recent international corruption surveys shows a mixed picture. In international ratings, Tanzania has experienced recent set-backs as regards the supply side of good governance, but this is coming from a high level of earlier performance.

For eight consecutive years since 1999, the country’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of Transparency International registered a steady increase from a score of 1.9 in 1999, on a scale of 10 with 10 designating total absence of corruption, to a score of 3.2 in 2007, ranking 94th (out of 180 countries). However, following the much hyped media reporting in 2007 of acts of grand corruption in 2000 – 2005 (which resulted in resignations or prosecutions of very senior public officials) it dropped to a ranking of 102 in 2008 and of 126 in 2009 with corresponding CPI scores of 3.0 and 2.6 respectively. Nevertheless, Tanzania was recently ranked best in the East Africa Bribery Index with a 17 percent bribery incidence vis-à-vis Kenya (45 percent) and Uganda (35 percent). Again, as regards the rating of World Bank’s IDA, under its Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) there was a dip in 2008 to 3.8 from 3.9 the previous year; the average rating among all IDA borrowers being 3.3; thus

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Tanzania remained above average and its performance relating to property rights and rule-based governance, quality of budgetary and financial management, efficiency of revenue mobilization and quality of public administration remained relatively good. In Doing Business, Tanzania dropped from overall 124 in 2008 to 127 in 2009, mainly caused by a dramatic drop in the ease of starting up a business. Tanzania recently scored 59.2 out of 100 in the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (which correlates well with corruption index), and was ranked 12th out of 53 African countries. Within the East African region, Tanzania was ranked second, and scored well above the East African regional average, which was 46.9, as well as above the overall continental average at 51.2. At category level, Tanzania scored well above the continental average in the categories of Safety and Rule of Law, Participation and Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity, and below the continental average for Human Development. Information on governance issues and corruption in Tanzania has not been adequately collected to inform policy and decision making by the Government. Earlier attempts through the Presidential Commission of Inquiry Against Corruption and the State of Corruption in Tanzania 2002 Report, while addressing specific questions on corruption, do not provide a comprehensive analysis of the state of corruption in Tanzania and do not establish a baseline that is needed for policy reform. This report presents the findings of the first ever composite baseline survey of governance and corruption in Tanzania. The survey was conducted between February and June 2009 and covered households, public officials and enterprises. The purpose of the survey was to provide national and regional perspectives of governance and corruption in Tanzania as perceived by ordinary citizens and by officials in the public and private sectors. [B] KEY MESSAGES The information collected from the survey offers a set of key messages that complements and reinforces the government’s current stand on the fight against corruption. • Corruption in Tanzania is a serious governance and developmental

challenge. It is a major problem affecting all sectors of the national economy from service delivery to natural resources exploitation, industrial production, environmental protection, business and commerce.

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• Service delivery is crippled by corruption and institutional inefficiency. Both households and enterprises rate the quality of services provided by key public institutions, notably the police force and judiciary as poor. They are also particularly concerned about the low levels of integrity in these institutions.

• Tackling greed and poverty, the root causes of corruption, is paramount in the

fight against corruption. Poorly remunerated public servants who need to make ends meet in an environment of rising cost of living and high inflation resort to petty corruption in order to supplement their incomes. On the other hand, greed to amass wealth illegally by corrupt bureaucratic elite and politicians diverts, through grand corruption, substantial public resources into private possessions, thereby depleting the government’s ability to deliver basic public services or to pay decent wages to public servants.

• The business environment is undermined by corruption and excessive

bureaucracy. Responses from enterprises indicate that corruption is a significant impediment to the general growth and operation of businesses in Tanzania. In addition to corruption, excessive bureaucracy and complicated requirements make it difficult to start a business and operate it honestly.

• Improvement in public administration is needed in order to make public

institutions more efficient, transparent and accountable to users of public services. Public officials’ responses indicate that although a sound public service management framework is in place, the enforcement of rules and regulations in most public institutions, particularly those governing personnel and financial management, is weak.

• Intensive public awareness campaign is needed to make the general public

understand various types of corruption and their consequences to the national economy; the public also needs to know the corruption reporting system and safeguards for those who report on corruption.

[C] MAIN FINDINGS AND CHALLENGES C.1 Prevalence, Severity and Trends in Corruption

• Respondents of the three surveys have a common understanding of corruption, and overwhelmingly relate the word corruption with “demand for unofficial payment”, “abuse of power” and “demand for sex”, in that order. This understanding is consistent with the broad definition of corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for personal gain. In general, however, their perception of different types of corruption is limited. A majority of households, for example, would tolerate the giving of “bakshish” or “takrima” and even embezzlement or fraud because they do not perceive them to be corrupt practices.

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• Corruption in Tanzania is fairly widespread and serious. Company

executives report to have encountered situations where they had to bribe public servants in order to obtain services more frequently than households and public officials have. They rate corruption – both petty and grand – as a serious problem that tops the list of problems currently facing the country. Corruption is ranked as the third major problem by households after inflation and high cost of living, while public officials rank it as the fourth major problem after high cost of living, inflation and unemployment.

• The leading cause of corruption is attributed to greed. This is followed,

for households and public officials by moral indecency and poor law enforcement; and for company executives by lack of control and accountability of public officials, and moral decay. Other causes of corruption identified by more than 70 percent of respondents are poor leadership, high cost of living, poor remuneration, lack of effective corruption reporting system, lack of independent and effective judiciary and poverty. Of course, these causes should not be independently treated, as they are intricately related in a manner that is not easily discernible.

• Public officials have been singled out by a majority of respondents as

the initiators and perpetrators of corruption, who demand bribes from their clients before serving them. The main form of gratification given in exchange for the services is money, but in some cases, respondents who were obliged to bribe parted with property or sex. Public officials also identified business people and multinational companies as prominent entities who, through bribing, influence the decisions made by top public sector officials.

• Respondents to the survey indicate that corruption is ebbing in some

sectors, but increasing in others. There is a significant improvement in the education and public health institutions when compared with the preceding two years, while during the same period corruption has deteriorated in the police force, judiciary and land office. Public officials report that the practice of making “under the table payments” which was widespread two to five years ago has declined and will continue to decline. Similarly, company executives are optimistic; a majority of them perceive the current level of corruption to be “better” or “much better” than in 2005.

C.2 Quality of Service, Integrity and Honesty of Public Institutions

• A central measure of governance is the quality of service delivered,

whether it be in form of law enforcement, regulation of markets or other

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social services such as education and health. Both households and enterprises, the main users of public services, generally rate the quality of services delivered by key public institutions as low. The data indicates the majority of public institutions in Tanzania need to focus on improving their performance in service delivery.

• The institutions ranked as providing very poor services are the police

force, the courts, water and electricity supply agencies and lands office. Those considered by households to be performing better than others are the pension funds, insurance companies and tender boards; while company executives rate the Tanzania Postal Corporation (TPC), Parliament and Tanzania Telecommunications Company Ltd (TTCL), in that order, as the best performing institutions.

• Service quality is one measure of the strength of governance. The

second is integrity and honesty. Households rate the police force as the most corrupt institution, followed by the judiciary and the health sector. The least corrupt institutions are the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and the banking sector. When comparisons are made across regions, the findings reveal that the police force as a whole, traffic police, the judiciary and health sector are considered very corrupt. In addition, other institutions singled out by the households as being corrupt are the local government, land tribunals and the education sector.

• Public officials, on the other hand, consider the services provided by

their institutions to be of high quality. Moreover, they suggest that the services are offered at relatively low cost and that they fully satisfy the user’s needs and are accessible to poor citizens. It is not surprising, therefore, that they appear more generous than households and company executives in their assessment of integrity and honesty of public institutions. A majority of public officials also rate the trade unions, NGOs and the private sectors as “honest” or “completely honest”

• Enterprises rate their own sector as ranking first in terms of

transparency, honesty and integrity, followed by public corporations and government departments. However, in contrast with the concept of honesty, a majority of company executives also indicate that “corruption is always practiced” in their sector and that nearly all private companies cheat on taxes. In an assessment of 33 industries, one third of them was rated by over two thirds of company executives as having good reputation, led by the telecommunications industry, food and beverages industry and hotel services industry. The high competition in these industries could be a contribution factor in this

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high rating. The industry with the worst rating is mining and quarrying, followed by construction.

C.3 Governance and Corruption in Key Sectors

• Performance of the Judiciary: The administration of justice is particularly afflicted by poor governance in the judiciary. Households and enterprises rank the judiciary as the second most corrupt institution after the police force. Corruption and delayed justice are the main barriers against households and firms access to courts. Households and company executives report that they bribe judges, prosecutors and other court officials in order to speed up legal proceedings and to influence the course of justice.

• Performance of the police force: Poor governance in the police

force is a major constraint to the administration of justice. Households and enterprises rank the police force as the most corrupt public institution. Corrupt officials of the police force extort bribes from criminals in order to distort the course of justice. They also extort bribes from suspected criminals in order to bail them out or to release them from police custody. While the majority of households believe that the police force “does not deserve” public trust, they favourably acknowledge the good cooperation that exists between the police force and the people in tackling crime; they are particularly satisfied with the timely arrival of the police force at the scene of crime in cases of emergency.

• Performance of the education sector: Education is a major sector

which impacts nearly every citizen. Over 80 percent of household respondents rate the education sector services as “good” or “very good”. This assessment is truly remarkable considering the existing problems reflected in the survey as impacting households, notably with respect to high costs of living, inflation and inadequate remuneration for teachers.

• Performance of the health sector: Like education, the health sector

impacts nearly every citizen. The quality of health services in public health delivery points is favourably perceived by households, a majority of whom rate the services as “good” or “very good”, in terms of staff, facilities and surroundings. Notwithstanding this favourable assessment, the overwhelming perception is that medical personnel are corrupt.

• Performance of public utilities: Access to public utilities such as

electricity and piped water supply is limited countrywide, particularly in the rural areas. Poor governance adversely affects the performance of

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electricity (TANESCO) and water supply agencies. Over a quarter of households report that it is common to bribe officials of these agencies in order to secure a connection.

• Public procurement: Public procurement and contracting sectors are

prone to grand corruption. Enterprises report that the tendering process is “rarely” or “never” fair and that, on average, procurement contracts involve unofficial payments of around 10 percent of the contract value.

• Other governance indicators: In response to questions concerning

the political environment, rule of law, human rights and women rights, households indicate that, in general, they are satisfied with the functioning of the political environment within the current framework of multiparty system operating in the country since 1992. They also believe that, in general, the rights of citizens are adequately respected and that the law is respected and applied equally to all. Over half of the respondents also believe the government to be transparent and performing its duties in an accountable manner. However, a majority of households believe women rights are not respected in property and land ownership.

C.4 Fighting Corruption

• Political commitment is essential in the fight against corruption. One very positive finding from all the three surveys is that households, public officials and company executives believe that the current Tanzania government is committed to fight corruption. Public officials also believe that there is a genuine desire to fight corruption within their own organizations, while most company executives disagree with statements that condone corruption, such as “corruption is a practical necessity for getting things done quickly”, Over two thirds of company executives also confirmed their willingness to provide material support in government initiatives to combat corruption by way of donating funds or volunteering staff on company time or resources to participate in such initiatives.

• Clearly the government is not alone in the fight against corruption.

When asked to rate how some institutions have helped in combating corruption in Tanzania, respondents give a high rating to the media, Faith-Based Organizations, PCCB, NGOs, and political parties. Other highly rated organs are academics and teachers, professional associations, Members of Parliament, Development Partners and the Legal and Human Rights Commission. The institutions rated as the least effective in combating corruption are the police force and the courts.

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• Awareness of the corruption reporting process is very poor among

households. Citizens are not only unaware of the process to follow to report corruption but they also do not know where to report. Many households stated that they are not willing to report corruption because they fear being victimized. Some believe that it is useless to report because culprits would not be prosecuted, while others do not wish to betray anyone.

• On sources of information about corruption, households indicated that

the radio is their principal source. Other important sources mentioned are newspapers, television, public meetings and places of worship. The majority of respondents confirm that the information received from these sources during the past twelve months is very reliable,

[D] RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE WAY FORWARD Results of the survey clearly demonstrate the need and urgency of intensifying the war against corruption in Tanzania. Based on the findings of the survey, follow-up actions should focus on achieving two broad objectives, namely: to consolidate the achievements already made in the fight against corruption and to strengthen the capacity of various organs involved in this fight. In this respect, a five-strand approach is recommended involving: • More research in high risk areas that are prone to corruption, in order to

determine the root causes of corruption in these areas and the most effective strategies of combating them. Areas identified as falling under this category in this survey are the police force, courts and local government authorities for petty corruption; and public procurement, customs, revenue collection and land allocation for grand corruption.

• Measures for strengthening the capacity of PCCB to tackle high profile grand

corruption cases in order to increase the success rate of prosecuting such cases;

• Measures to make public institutions improve performance in service delivery; • Measures for strengthening collaboration between the government and other

organs in the civil society and private sector that are involved in the fight against corruption, notably the media, faith-based organizations, NGOs and professional associations; and

• Measures to enhance public awareness of corruption, its causes and

consequences in society and national development, and to improve the system of reporting corruption.

1 National Governance and Corruption Survey – 2009 Report: Volume 1

SECTION I: INTRODUCTION

I.1 Background and Purpose of the Survey

Governance is the way in which public power and authority is formed and used to control and manage society’s resources. Good governance rests on four pillars: transparency, accountability, predictability and participation. Corruption, commonly defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, is a key symptom of weak governance. It has a severely debilitating effect on the economic, social and political environment in which it occurs. Corruption hampers economic growth, increases poverty among the poor, and undermines investment and capacity building. Hence, anti-corruption strategies need to be an integral part of a development strategy designed to eradicate poverty, stimulate economic growth and enhance capacity building. Current government initiatives to promote good governance and to fight corruption in Tanzania can be traced back to January 1996, following the establishment of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry Against Corruption. Ten months later the Commission published its Report, popularly known as the Warioba Report, which is hailed as one of the most respected and commended analysis of corruption by any African state. The Warioba Report marked the opening up of public discussion on corruption in Tanzania and paved the way for extensive public sector reforms intended to enhance good governance and combat corruption.

Since 1996 significant improvements have been achieved within good governance in Tanzania. In 1999 the Government formulated the National Framework for Good Governance (NFGG) to facilitate the coordination of reforms designed to foster good governance and improve public service delivery. The National anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan (NACSAP) was also formulated in 1999 as a component of the NFGG and as a Government’s key management instrument to combat corruption. The second phase of NACSAP (NACSAP II) was launched in 2006.

Tanzania’s performance in recent international corruption surveys shows a mixed picture. In international ratings, Tanzania has experienced recent set-backs as regards the supply side of good governance, but this is coming from a high level of earlier performance. For eight consecutive years since 1999, the country’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of Transparency International registered a steady increase from a score of 1.9 in 1999, on a scale of 10 with 10 designating


total absence of corruption, to a score of 3.2 in 2007, ranking 94th (out of 180 countries). However, following the much hyped media reporting in 2007 of acts of grand corruption in 2000 – 2005 (which resulted in resignations or prosecutions of very senior public officials) it dropped to a ranking of 102 in 2008 and of 126 in 2009 with corresponding CPI scores of 3.0 and 2.6 respectively. Nevertheless, Tanzania was recently ranked best in the East Africa Bribery Index with a 17 percent bribery incidence vis-à-vis Kenya (45 percent) and Uganda (35 percent).

Again, as regards the rating of World Bank’s IDA, under its Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) there was a dip in 2008 to 3.8 from 3.9 the previous year; the average rating among all IDA borrowers being 3.3; thus Tanzania remained above average and its performance relating to property rights and rule-based governance, quality of budgetary and financial management, efficiency of revenue mobilization and quality of public administration remained relatively good. In Doing Business, Tanzania dropped from overall 124 in 2008 to 127 in 2009, mainly caused by a dramatic drop in the ease of starting up a business.

Tanzania recently scored 59.2 out of 100 in the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (which correlates well with corruption index), and was ranked 12th out of 53 African countries. Within the East African region, Tanzania was ranked second, and scored well above the East African regional average, which was 46.9, as well as above the overall continental average at 51.2. At category level, Tanzania scored well above the continental average in the categories of Safety and Rule of Law, Participation and Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity, and below the continental average for Human Development.

One major activity envisaged in NACSAP II is to carry out a comprehensive diagnostic National Governance and Corruption Survey (NGACS), which is the subject of this Report. The concept paper for NACSAP II states that: “A comprehensive National Governance and Corruption Survey will be launched presently, and, in the future it will be conducted every two years. It will be established as one of NACSAP’s standard instruments for identifying where corruption occurs and on what scale, conducting analytical work relating survey results to the delivery of services, communicating with the public, and helping set priorities for tackling corruption issues and strengthening corruption-prone ministries, departments, agencies and local government authorities”. Information on governance issues and corruption in Tanzania has not been adequately collected to inform policy and decision making. Earlier attempts through the Presidential Commission of Inquiry Against


Corruption and the State of Corruption in Tanzania 2002 report, while addressing specific questions on corruption, do not provide a comprehensive analysis of the state of corruption in Tanzania and do not establish a baseline that is needed for policy reform. Hence the need for this survey.

I.2 Objectives and Scope of the Survey This Report presents the findings of a comprehensive baseline survey conducted from February to June 2009 on governance and corruption in Tanzania, whose overall objective is to provide national and regional perspectives of governance and corruption in Tanzania as perceived by ordinary citizens and officials in the public and private sectors. The specific objectives of the survey are: • To solicit information from citizens and foster public awareness about

national governance and corruption issues; • To identify areas or issues for further research;

• To provide an empirical basis for strategic planning and programme

planning for NACSAP;

• To provide an empirical and analytical basis to argue for budgetary resources for NACSAP and related reforms; and

• To provide an empirical benchmark and basis for monitoring and

evaluating the effectiveness of government’s governance and anti-corruption programmes over time.

The Terms of Reference of the survey are given in the Appendix to this Report. The Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) conducted the survey through the Front Against Corrupt Elements in Tanzania (FACEIT), a non-governmental organization specialized in analysis and measurement of corruption in Tanzania, who performed the survey in association with the Dar Management and Computing Centre and Unique Financial Services Ltd. The Government of Denmark provided financial support for the execution of the survey. As is standard in international practice, the survey was conducted as a composite survey consisting of three separate surveys of households, public officials and private enterprises that were carried out simultaneously. The survey covered all 21 regions of mainland Tanzania


and the results provide national and regional perspectives of governance and corruption. This document is the first volume of a four-volume Report presenting the findings of the baseline survey. It presents and analyses the main findings of the composite survey together with conclusions and recommendations for the way forward, focusing on corruption and related elements of governance, notably service delivery and the functioning of core institutions dealing with the rule of law, public finance, public procurement and public personnel management. Detailed findings (as well as prima facie conclusions & recommendations) of each survey are presented separately as Volume 2: Household Survey, Volume 3: Public Officials Survey and Volume 4: Enterprises Survey. The Report provides PCCB with the first-of-its-kind empirical information which can be used, inter alia, for multiple objectives by multiple stakeholders, including sectoral ministries, the regional administration and local governments.

I.3 Survey Methodology and Sample

The survey involved randomly selected households, public officials and enterprises, who were asked to respond, in a face-to-face interview, to structured and pre-tested questionnaires. The questionnaires were based on those prepared by the World Bank and as refined through consultations with an especially constituted Technical Committee charged with the overall supervision of the survey. The questionnaires were further refined and adapted to Tanzanian conditions through a pilot survey conducted before implementing the full survey.

The diagnostic surveys of households, public officials and business enterprises adopted different sample designs. Altogether, a total of 14,394 respondents were selected nationwide for interviewing, on the basis of representative probability samples distributed to the three surveys as shown in Table 1 below. The survey samples were designed, subject to important time and financial limitations, to ensure high quality of data, from both the national and regional perspectives. As Table 1 shows, high response rates were attained in all the three surveys: Table 1: Survey Sample and Response Rate

Type of Survey Sample (No. of selected Respondents)

Result (No. of

Respondents)

Response Rate (%)

Household Survey

6,804 6,785

99.7

Public Officials Survey

6,900

6,114

88.6


Enterprises Survey

690 627 90.9

Total 14,394 13,526 94.0

I.4 Profile of Survey Respondents

In interpreting the results of the survey, it is important to bear in mind the profile of the survey respondents. These are briefly summarized below:

Households

The household respondents typically come from a humble background – only 15 percent of the households have electricity and only 11 percent of them are connected to public water supply; also, over a third have no formal education.

Public Officials:

Respondents to the public officials survey come from a wide spectrum of government and public service employees that is representative of gender, age, education, seniority and salary levels.

• gender : 58% / 42% (male/female split) • education : degree or equivalent holders : 45%

secondary school : 52%

• age : 25 – 55 years (even spread) • terms of service : 91% as permanent, with pension

7% on contract basis

• salary : 50% @ USD 200 per month : 40% @ USD 600 per month under ½% @ USD 1000+ per month

• cadre of post : 28% senior professionals

53% selected officers

• previous employer : 64% student (i.e. joined public service on completing school/university education) 12% private sector


Enterprises:

Of the 627 firms covered by the survey, 549 were in the urban and the remaining 78 in the rural areas of Tanzania; they included:-

• 384 sole proprietors

• 141 partnerships

• 12 limited liability companies

• 4 publicly listed companies

• 86 others (unclassified)

I.5 Limitation of the Survey The split of businesses types is skewed in favour of small and medium enterprises. Bearing in mind that grand corruption involves the larger business organizations; the extent of grand corruption reflected by the result of this survey is likely to be limited. Hence there is need to carry out, at a future date, a separate survey targeted at the larger business houses operating in Tanzania. Ultimately, the surveys provide a reliable representation of the views and opinions of those who responded. However, they cannot possibly assess the level of knowledge or honesty of each respondent, nor can they represent vital information withheld from the interviewer. It is important to bear this in mind when interpreting the findings.


SECTION II: MAIN FINDINGS OF THE SURVEY

Chapter 1: RESPONDENTS UNDERSTANDING OF CORRUPTION

In all the three surveys, respondents overwhelmingly relate the word corruption to “demand for unofficial payment”, “demand for sex” and “abuse of power”, in that order (Table 2). “Demand for unofficial payment” dominate the scene by being chosen by 92.5 percent of households, 94.4 percent of public officials and 94.4 percent of company executives. Respondents in the three surveys also ranked these three types of corruption as the most serious types of corruption, in the same order. Respondents also understand that corruption arises in both public and private sectors and that it can be petty or grand, organized or unorganized. Table 2: Percentage distribution of respondents

associating corruption to various definitions

Definition

Percentage of Respondents

Households Public

Officials Enterprises

Demand for unofficial payment

92.5 94.4 94.4

Demand for sex 29.7 57.4 50.9

Abuse of power 25.9 31.1 36.8

Demand for favour 17.3 18.6 27.1

Fraud 18.9 19.2 19.9

Takrima 16.5 18.9 19.8

Embezzlement of public funds

11.3 12.9 17.2

Baksheesh 6.6 7.7 12.0

Other 6.4 10.6 8.3

This understanding of corruption is consistent with the broad definition of corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for personal gain. This broad definition encompasses unilateral abuses by government officials such as embezzlement and nepotism as well as abuses linking public and private sectors such as bribery, extortion, influence peddling and fraud.


Across the country, households have rated both petty corruption (83.7 percent) and grand corruption (85.3 percent) as being very harmful; this points to the two types of corruption being viewed interchangeable by households. Public officials also rate both petty corruption (88.4 percent) and grand corruption (92.8 percent) as being very harmful, a response that reflects that grand corruption is viewed by public officials as being more harmful than petty corruption. Notwithstanding the above rating, it is significant to note that, in general, there is a limited understanding of the different types of corruption. For instance, only a small number of households (11.2 percent) and public officials (12.9 percent) consider embezzlement, which is a major type of grand corruption, to be corruption. It is clearly puzzling to see that a large proportion of household respondents (88.8 percent) and public officials (87.1 percent) do not consider embezzlement as corruption! The same applies to fraud which is considered by an equally small number of households (18.9 percent), public officials (19.1 percent) and enterprises (19.4 percent) to be corruption. It is also significant to note that “takrima”, a common type of political corruption deployed to influence voters during parliamentary and local government elections, which was legalized by Parliament in 2000 and later outlawed following strong condemnation by anti-corruption activists, is acceptable to many respondents. Only a relatively small number of households (16.5 percent), public officials (18.9 percent) and company executives (19.8 percent) consider “takrima” to be corruption. The survey findings also reflect that, in general, company executives have a better understanding of different types of corruption than households and public officials. Indeed, the understanding of corruption by households is essentially limited to “demand for unofficial payment”, and more than 70 percent of households do not understand other types of corruption.


Chapter 2: PREVALENCE, SERIOUSNESS AND TRENDS

In order to make sound decisions on the level of effort needed to fight corruption, one needs to know how prevalent corruption is in society as well as its seriousness and trends. The survey sought views of households, enterprises and public officials on their experience of corruption, causes of corruption, its seriousness and trends. The findings reflect that corruption is not only widespread, but also serious. They also reflect the respondents concern that corruption is unlikely to decline significantly in the near future.

2.1 Experience of Corruption

A significant proportion of households (39 percent), public officials (32.5 percent) and company executives (49.7 percent) confirmed having had to bribe a public servant in order to obtain service. Although this proportion is much lower than the number of respondents who stated that corruption is very harmful (implying that the latter say so despite having no direct personal experience of corruption), it clearly highlights the existence of significant corrupt practices that affect both citizens and businesses. These findings also indicate that private business enterprises encounter more corruption than households and public officials.

When assessed from a regional perspective, the extent of corruption varies from one region to another. For instance, the enterprise survey shows that Morogoro region has the highest percentage of company executives who are frequently obliged to pay bribes (90 percent) and Rukwa region has the lowest rate of incidence (30 percent). The main form of gratification given in exchange for the services offered is money, as reported by households (86%), public officials (86.8%) and company executives (91%) who were obliged to bribe. In some cases respondents who confirmed having bribed public servants had to part with property, according to seven percent of households, four percent of company executives and five percent of public officials; or sex, as reported by about one percent of respondents of each of the three surveys (see Table 3 below). Table 3: Forms of gratification given

Form of

Gratification

Households Public



Money 86 86.8 91 Property 7 5 4 Sex 0.8 1.2 0.6


Where money changed hands, the amount involved in 80 percent of the households who confirmed having bribed was less than TZS 50,000 (USD 40); this includes those who parted with less than TZS 5,000 (19 percent) and those who parted with between TZS 5,000 and TZS 10,000 (21 percent). This indicates that corruption experienced by households is essentially petty. Households who paid bribes had different reasons for doing so. Fifty percent stated that they paid because the bribe was demanded. Others paid because “they know that they usually have to pay in order to get service” (21.1 percent), or because “they have to pay to get service early” (18.4 percent). Of course there are regional disparities in the reasons that prompted households to bribe public servants in order to obtain service. In Arusha region, for example 71 percent of households who were obliged to bribe did so in order to get service quickly, despite the fact that no bribe was demanded from them. In all other regions, the proportion of households who bribe for this reason is much lower (less than 23 percent). However, the proportion of households from whom bribes were demanded is very high in Mara region (90.9 percent) and Morogoro region (72.4 percent). The frequency of paying bribes varies and depends on the type of service being sought (see Figure 1 below). To speed up legal proceedings in court, for example, 22 percent of households report that they found themselves obliged to pay bribes “always”, “most times” or “frequently”.

Figure 1: Distribution of Households by Level of Incidence of

Making Unofficial Payments (Percent)

3.1.34: Distribution of Households by Level of incidences of Making Unofficial Payments (Percent)

35.2

33.7

14.6

7.9

5

3.3

54.9

17.5

8

5

1.9

12.2

58.6

11.7

6.1

2.8

1

19.3

52.6

14.2

9.3

8.7

4

10.5

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Never

Seldom

Frequently

Most Tmes

Always

Don't know/Not Stated

To obtain basic public services To obtain licenses or permitsTo update/revise tax status To speed up legal proceedings in a court


The enterprises report that their community has the highest annual contact with TANESCO (9 times) out of which bribe was paid (3 times) of about TZS 40,000 Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) follows next with 6 contacts per annum in which two such contacts resulted in bribing transactions of involving TZS 118,685. This, too, is petty corruption.

Public officials rated “under the table” payments as being “wide spread” explaining that it was practiced (by companies and persons) to the extent of 70 percent two to five years ago; it is currently practiced to an extent of 66 percent.

Regarding grand corruption, enterprises divulged key information based on public tendering practices and percentages of contract sum changing hands as bribes paid in order to win government contracts (section 3.1). Apart from this, almost all other reports on actual experiences of corruption in this survey relate to petty corruption, which is significant. This confirms that grand corruption is also sizeable in Tanzania, which is what enterprises inferred to when making reference to methodology for winning government contracts (section 3.1). This is also borne out by the responses of public officials when asked as to which are the prominent entities who, through bribing, influence the decisions made by top public sector officials: they identified business people and multinational companies as the prominent entities (see section 2.3).

2.2 Causes of Corruption The leading cause of corruption is attributed to greed/selfishness by 96.2 percent of households, 96.6 percent of public officials and 95.5 percent of company executives. This is followed, for households by moral indecency (92.5 percent) and absence of punishment (90.3 percent); for public officials by moral indecency (90.9 percent) and poor law enforcement/absence of punishment (85.2 percent); and for company executives by lack of control and accountability of public officials (86.7 percent) and moral decay (84.1 percent). Other causes of corruption identified by more than 70 percent of respondents in the three surveys are poor leadership, high cost of living, poor remuneration, lack of effective corruption reporting system, lack of independent and effective judiciary and poverty.

Admittedly, the above causes are intricately related, in a manner that is not manifested by their ranking. For example poverty and poor remuneration, though rated as less important causes of


corruption, are closely related and known to be the leading causes of petty corruption. Poorly remunerated public servants who need to make ends meet in an environment of rising costs of living, inflation and prospects of unemployment almost on a daily basis, resort to petty corruption in order to supplement their incomes. Their poverty ensures that petty corruption thrives under this situation. Beyond poverty there is greed, particularly by corrupt bureaucratic elite and politicians bent on amassing wealth illegally, which is cited by over 95 percent of respondents in the three surveys as the main cause of corruption. Greed drives grand corruption and the latter aggravates poverty and subsequently leads to the casual relationship shown in Figure 2 between greed, corruption and poverty, as established by FACEIT. Figure 2: Relationship between Grand and Petty Corruption The fact that the ranking of causes does not distinguish between those applying to petty corruption and those attributed to grand corruption, implies that petty and grand corruptions are treated as interchangeable by the survey respondents. Hence, acts of petty corruption (by traffic police, hospital staff, etc) may have been interpreted as manifestations of greed by some respondents, pointing to an inadequate understanding as to the underlying causes of petty corruption and also as to any true comprehension of the nature of grand corruption. Further research is needed.

2.3 Perpetrators of Corruption

Corruption, like any exchange, requires two actors – a buyer and a seller. The buyer is an ordinary citizen who bribes a public official (“seller”) in order to obtain service. The buyer is also a business person in the private sector who gives gratification to a public official in order to get service or to secure a procurement contract with the government. The buyer may pay the bribe for a service which is perfectly legal, but scarce, or in order to obtain something

Grand Corruption (+ Capital flight)

Petty Corruption Greed Poverty


which he or she does not deserve, such as exemption from a valid regulation or influencing tender results in his or her favour. Whatever the case, a corrupt deal cannot go through unless both parties agree to it and both parties agree to keep quiet about it.

Corruption can be initiated by the service provider (i.e. public official) or service recipient. It is therefore perpetrated by corrupt public officials who demand gratification in order to offer services and by unscrupulous businessmen and citizens who bribe public officials in order to get services they do not deserve or in order to accomplish an illegal deal. Ordinary citizens compelled by desperation to pay bribes in order to obtain legitimate services are mere victims of corruption.

Survey findings show that the experience of 83 percent of the enterprises was that bribery was initiated by service providers, while 11.8 percent indicated that service recipients initiated bribery (see Figure 3). The survey results confirm that in the majority of cases where corruption is involved, it is the government officials who demand bribes from their clients before serving them.

Figure 3: Percentage distribution of enterprises indicating

the initiators of bribery From a regional perspective, the findings show that Mara, Pwani and Manyara are the three top regions where government officials


initiated bribery as reported by more than 80 percent of enterprises. Iringa has the lowest rate of 30 percent. When asked who perpetrates corruption in Tanzania, households also singled out government officials (reported by 84.1 percent of respondents), followed by politicians (44.1 percent), local businessmen (27.5 percent) and foreign businessmen (29.8 percent). Citizens were also identified by 29.8 percent of respondents as perpetrators of corruption in society. At the regional level, government officials are perceived by over 60 percent of household respondents to be the leading perpetrators of corruption in all regions except Iringa. They are particularly notorious in Mara, Manyara, Kigoma, Lindi, Arusha and Morogoro regions where they are identified as perpetrators of corruption by 99.1 percent, 96 percent, 92.5 percent, 92 percent, 90.4 percent and 90.1 percent of household respondents respectively. In Iringa region, foreign businessmen lead as perpetrators of corruption according to 48.8 percent of households and government officials are rated lowest at 4.8 percent.

Households were also asked to assess the extent to which professionals and other persons in important positions were involved in corruption. The professionals perceived by over 40 percent of households to be mostly involved in corruption are traffic police officers, police officers, court clerks, magistrates, doctors and nurses. When public officials were asked which prominent entities who, through bribing, influence the decisions made by top public sector officials, they identified business people (64.8 percent) and multinational companies (63.9 percent) as the prominent entities.

2.4 Seriousness of Corruption

Responses show clearly that corruption – both petty and grand – impacts seriously almost on all citizens and Tanzanian entities. Results of the survey show that corruption is considered to be a major problem by 92.3 percent of firms, 88.2 percent of households and 92.9 percent of public officials. Only 7.2 percent of firms, 11 percent of households and 5.8 percent of public officials consider corruption to be a moderate problem.


Table 4 below highlights key problems currently facing Tanzania as perceived by households, public officials and enterprises. Table 4: Key Problems in Tanzania (As reported by households, public officials and enterprises)

Key Problem

Percentage of Respondents

Households Public


Inflation

92.3 89.6 90.6

High cost of living

90.6 90.1 89.9

Corruption in public services

86.5 83.2 90.9

Unemployment

83.6 86.2 83.7

Cost of health services

75.9 75.5 77.1

When compared with other problems facing the country, corruption in public sector dominates as the biggest problem reported by 90.9 percent of company executives, followed by inflation reported by 90.6 percent of company executives and high cost of living, reported by 89.9 percent of company executives, comes third. When corruption is further examined from the regional dimension; Arusha, Morogoro, Mara and Iringa lead, with 100 percent of enterprises identifying corruption in the public sector as a major problem, followed by Lindi (97percent), Manyara (97 percent and Dodoma (96 percent). Similarly, when compared with other problems which the country is going through, 92.3 percent of households identified inflation as the most serious problem, followed by cost of living reported by 90.6 percent of households and corruption in the public sector comes third, as reported by 86.5 percent of household respondents. Regional comparison shows that Dodoma region leads followed by Mara and Mtwara regions as regions with high corruption in the public sector according to 99.7 percent, 97.8 percent and 97.2 percent of household respondents, respectively. When asked to compare corruption with other problems facing the country public officials ranked corruption in public services as the


fourth biggest problem (according to 83.2 percent of respondents). According to public officials, high cost of living tops the list of serious problems followed by inflation and unemployment as reported by 90.1 percent, 89.6 percent and 86.2 percent of respondents respectively.

When the respondents cite “inflation” and “high cost of living” as being more serious a problem than “corruption in public services” they do so as if the three are unrelated; when enterprises state that “access to and cost of financing” and “poor infrastructure” impede their growth and that these are their principal operational problems, this is in fact a pointer to high cost of borrowing (attributable to banks’ inability to recover money stolen through fraud or embezzlement) and to the very high cost of infrastructure incurred when it is procured by the public sector entities (attributable to procurement corruption). It is, in the final analysis, grand corruption which drives the problems faced by enterprises in their day-to-day operations. These, in turn, translate as inflation and high cost of living experienced by all who live in Tanzania.

2.5 Trends in Corruption

All respondents are up-beat about the fight against corruption. Households have indicated that the vice is ebbing in some sectors but increasing in others. They have reported that on basis of perceived comparison with the preceding two years, the responses show that (despite a very large proportion who do not know) there is significant improvement in public health and public school institutions and likewise in City/Municipal/District/Town Councils and the Village/Mtaa governments; these are institutions which impact the respondents directly and possibly on a daily basis. Also, over 50 percent of the same household respondents consider the quality of health services to have improved (over the preceding 3 years) and over 50 percent of them expect a further improvement over the next three years. However, household respondents also indicate that, compared to the preceding two years, corruption has deteriorated significantly in the police force as a whole (according to 63.5 percent of respondents), traffic police (66.9 percent), the judiciary (58.1 percent) and land office (41.4 percent). Public officials have responded (as has been stated before) that the practice of making “under-the-table payments” by companies and


persons is widespread; they have also observed that whereas that practice was to an extent of 70 percent two to five years ago, it is currently reduced to about 66 percent and that it is expected to decline further to a level of about 45 percent in the next two years.

Similarly, 52.5 percent of respondents to the enterprises survey consider that the state of corruption now is “better” or “much better” than in 2005.

Here, it should be noted that households are referring to petty corruption, whereas the enterprises (and possibly, public officials) are having in mind grand corruption; if so, this is exhilarating because grand corruption, the ultimate driver of petty corruption, appears to be slowing down.


Chapter 3: QUALITY OF SERVICE DELIVERY, HONESTY AND INTEGRITY

3.1 Quality and Efficiency of Public Service Delivery

A central measure of governance is the quality of service the government delivers; whether it be in the form of law enforcement, regulation of markets or other social services such as health and education. This section presents the evaluation of users (households and enterprises) of public services with respect to quality and efficiency. Respondents of the household and enterprise surveys were asked to rate a variety of public service institutions in terms of quality and efficiency of services delivered by these institutions on a scale of four ranging from very poor to very good. Both households and enterprises generally rate the quality of services provided by key public institutions as low. The data indicates that the majority of public institutions in Tanzania need to focus on improving their performance in service delivery. Households rate the traffic police lowest, according to 57.1 percent of respondents, who rate their services as very poor, and 37.1 percent of respondents who rate the services as poor, making a total of 94.2 percent of households who are dissatisfied with the quality of services provided by the traffic police. Another institution considered by households as providing very poor services is the police force as a whole according to 94 percent of respondents. This is closely followed by the courts (91.2 percent), water supply agencies (85.9 percent) and TANESCO (82.5 percent). Pension funds, insurance and tender boards are considered to be performing better than other institutions according to 31.2 percent, 30.7 percent and 28.9 percent of respondents, respectively, who rate the quality of their services as very good. Company executives rate the services provided by the police force as the poorest, according to 73.4 of respondents, followed by the judiciary (67 percent), TANESCO (63 percent), and Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development (60.0 percent). The best rated institution is the Tanzania Postal Corporation, whose services are rated as being good to very good


by 86.1 percent of company executives, followed by the Parliament (84.6 percent), Tanzania Telecommunications Company Ltd (82.8 percent) and Central Government (81.5 percent). In assessing the quality of services provided by the police force by region, over 50 percent of company executives rate them as very poor in 18 out of 21 regions. The exceptions are Tanga, Pwani and Tabora regions which are rated as providing good quality services by 55.2 percent, 52.2 percent and 50 percent of company executives respectively. As in indirect measure of the efficacy of service delivery in public institutions, the survey attempted to evaluate difficulties encountered by private sector enterprises in doing business with the government through public procurement. A large proportion of the government expenditure budget is expended on public procurement and contracting, which involves the procurement of goods, works and services from the private sector. It is an area that is normally perceived to be prone to corruption. Sixteen percent of enterprise respondents indicated that they participated in public tendering. When asked to assess how fairly government procurement is processed, 68.4 percent of respondents report that it is “rarely” or “never” fair (see Figure 4). Figure 4: Percentage distribution enterprise reporting frequency of government procurement tenders being awarded in a clear and efficient manner

Enterprises further reported that, in general, public tendering processes are beset with several malpractices, which are done frequently, notably:


• bid rigging (reported as being frequent by 83.3 percent of respondents);

• qualified bidder being disqualified at pre-qualification stage (76.7 percent);

• adjustment of specification in the interest of a favoured company (68.9 percent);

• leakage of client’s budget at tender stage (67.5 percent); and • modification of contract terms during implementation stage,

i.e. after award of tender (67.6 percent) Enterprises further reported that having “connections” and making of an “unofficial payment” are important factors to win a government contract, according to 68 percent and 63.7 percent of respondents, respectively, and that, on average, public procurement contracts involve unofficial payments amounting to 10.4 percent of the contract value. Regional comparisons reflect significant differences in the quantum of bribes paid, which is higher than the national average in Mara region (25 percent of contract value), Dar es Salaam (14 percent) and Lindi region (12 percent); while in Tanga, Ruvuma, Iringa, Tabora, Rukwa and Kigoma regions the bribe paid is three percent of the contract value or lower. Apart from corruption, inflation and high costs of accessing finance, enterprises face various bureaucratic problems in their business operations as indicated in Table 5, which shows that over 55 percent of enterprises consider government requirements for operating business in Tanzania as being fairly difficult to very difficult to meet. In this respect, government requirements on taxation, tax holidays, reclaiming duty, etc are reported to be the most difficult to meet. Firms also reported that it takes an average of 58 days to clear goods through customs instead of the official 15 days. Table 5: Percentage distribution of enterprises reporting

difficulty of meeting Government Requirements

Government requirements Difficulty of meeting requirements (% of respondents)

Very/Fairly Difficult

Fairly/Very Easy

Regulations relating to licensing 56.0 44.0 Restrictions on buying and selling assets 56.3 43.6 Ownership regulations 59.7 40.3 Labour market regulations 68.8 31.2 Price control 73.8 26.2 Filing of tax returns 75.5 24.5


Taxation, tax holidays, reclaiming duty, etc. 78.0 22.0 In order to overcome bureaucracy, many firms are forced to use facilitators (private accountants, lawyers and tax advisers) to assist them in processing documents to meet government requirements. Results of the survey show that such facilitators cost firms an average of TZS 1,412,605 per annum. Enterprises also report that it takes 12 percent of senior management’s time to process government requirements, with an annual average cost of TZS 1,104,702.

3.2 Honesty and Integrity of Public Institutions

Service quality is one measure of the strength of governance. The second is integrity and honesty. In the survey, respondents were asked to rate the honesty and integrity of various public institutions on a scale of four, ranging from very dishonest to very honest.

Households rate the police force as a whole and the traffic police to be the most corrupt institutions, according to 88.7 percent and 85.6 percent of respondents, respectively. This is followed by the judiciary (86.3 percent) and the health sector (84.9 percent). The least corrupt institutions are the NSSF, PCCB and banking sector; these institutions are ranked as corrupt by only 28.7 percent, 29.6 percent and 36.7 percent of household respondents, respectively.

When comparisons are made across regions, the findings reveal that the police force as a whole, traffic police, the judiciary and health sector are considered very corrupt. In addition, other institutions singled out by households as being corrupt are the local government, land tribunals and the education sector. Public officials, on the other hand, appear to be more generous than households and company executives in their assessment of integrity and honesty of public institutions. Two thirds of the respondents rate the following seven public institutions as being “honest” or “completely” honest: the Army (81.1 percent of respondents), Offices of District Commissioners (72.1 percent), commercial banks (72 percent), the Parliament (69.4 percent), PCCB (68.7 percent), National Audit Office (66.9 percent) and social security funds (66.5 percent). Two thirds of respondents also rate the following seven public institutions as being less honest: Ministry of Home Affairs (52.8 percent of respondents), High Court (51.2 percent), Ministry of Finance (50.5 percent), Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development (44.9


percent), Bank of Tanzania (41.9 percent), District/Primary Courts (36.3 percent) and the Police Force (31.1 percent). A majority of public officials also rate the trade unions, NGOs and the private sector as “honest” or “completely honest”, according to 77.8 percent, 73.5 percent and 70.3 percent of respondents respectively. One trend that stands out in these findings is that integrity is closely related to performance. In general, public institutions rated as having high integrity are also highly rated in terms of quality of services delivered.

3.3 Honesty and Integrity of Private Sector

The business community does business with both the public sector and with itself. Corrupt practices in both cases adversely affect the national citizen either as taxpayer of the public sector or the consumer of the final product from the private sectors. The survey sought to examine corruption within the private sector. 70.3 percent of the public officials regard the private sector as being either “honest” or “completely honest” – which rating is better than the one they accord either to parliament (69.4 percent) or to PCCB (68.7 percent) – and is ranked sixth after ranking first the Army (81.1 percent); followed by trade unions (77.8 percent); NGOs (73.5 percent); Offices of District Commissioners (72.1 percent) and the commercial banks (72 percent). Enterprises, consider the private sector as ranking first (60 percent) in terms of transparency, honesty and tendering process followed by public corporations (20 percent) and government departments (18 percent), but they also give the following self assessment which conflicts with the concept of “honesty”:- • 95.8 percent stated that they “always demand receipts”;

• 91.2 percent stated that only, “a few companies” keep one set of

books;

• 76.4 percent stated that “hardly any company” pays taxes honestly; and

• 55 percent stated that “corruption is always practiced” in their

sector


In a self-assessment of the reputation of the private sector by industry, ten out of 33 industries assessed were reported by more than two thirds of the respondents that they had a good reputation, led by the telecommunications industry (79.6 percent), food and beverages industry (77.8 percent) and hotel services industry (75.1 percent). The high competition in these industries could be a contributing factor to this high rating. The industry with the worst rating is mining and quarrying, followed by contractors, which were rated to have a good reputation by only 21.5 percent and 23.0 percent of respondents respectively.

3.4 Perception of the Private sector on Policies, Laws and

Regulations

Policies, Laws, rules and regulations prevailing in the country provide the environment under which enterprises operate. Accessibility of documents on policies, laws rules and regulations enables enterprises to know their rights and obligations including the right rates of fees payable where need be. Figure 5 shows how easy it is for enterprises to access their documentation. They are generally available, with 41 percent indicating that they are very easily available and 30 percent showing they are available, making a total of 71 percent. Only two percent indicated that they are very difficult to obtain.

Figure 5: Percentage distribution of firms reporting the

availability of rules and regulations affecting firms


When asked how predictable the policies, rules and regulations were, the firms stated that they are generally predictable, with 40 percent indicating that they are completely predictable and 32 percent indicating they are fairly predictable giving a total of 72 percent. Seven percent indicated that they are completely unpredictable. Predictable policies, laws and regulations reduce uncertainty in the business operating environment making it conducive.

When enterprises were asked to compare between now and 2005 on the predictability of economic and financial policies, rules and regulations, their response indicates that both years were equally fairly predictable. For the private sector to play a leading role in the economy there needs to be consultations between the business community and government. Fifty nine percent of enterprises feel that government consults them sometimes and 20 percent said they are consulted always adding up to 78.8 percent. Enterprises also generally rate the intervention of government in their daily business operations as minimal. When asked to assess the frequency of such interventions, a majority of respondents indicated that the government never interfered with their operations in respect of dividends and mergers (reported by over 80 percent of firms); investment, sales and employment (reported by over 70 percent of respondents). However, 43.3 percent and 41 percent of respondents respectively reported that there was government interference “always” or “sometimes” with respect to pricing and wages.

3.5 Public Service working environment and administration

Public officials, on average, consider the services provided by their institutions to be of high quality. Moreover, they point out that the services provided by their institutions are offered at relatively low cost and that they fully satisfy the user’s needs and are accessible to poor citizens. As an indirect measure of the quality of the working environment in the public service, public officials perceptions about the quality of


management policies, guidelines and regulations related to personnel issues were assessed by way of responses on how decisions at the institution level are taken. In this respect, survey results show that over two thirds of public officials “agree” or “strongly agree” that stipulated regulations and procedures

• are formal and written; • are simple, clear and easy to understand; • do not require an excessive number of administrative steps; • are well supervised (managers make sure that rule are

followed); and • are strictly applied (non-compliance always leads to negative

consequences for those who do not follow the rules). Responses from over two thirds of public officials also confirm that stipulated regulations and procedures include agreed performance targets and measurement criteria that are simple, indicating the existence of good quality management of organizational functions in public institutions.

Further, public officials were asked about the implementation of these procedures during the two financial years prior to the survey as relates to hiring of staff, assignments, promotions and salary increase. In response more than two thirds of public officials “agree” or “strongly agree” that

• decisions are made in a transparent manner; • decisions are useful for improvement of institutional

efficiency; and • positions falling vacant are made public (when appropriate)

This means that public officials favourably rate the staff recruitment process and information in their respective institutions. In response to questions concerning budget administration, most public officials agreed with the statements that:

• budget administration decisions are subjected to regular

internal and external audits; • budget administration decisions are based on specific

criteria defined in writing; and • budget administration decisions are based on purely

technical criteria. This means that public officials rate budget monitoring mechanisms as effective. However, we observe significant differences among


regions with respect to perceptions on political influence in budget decisions; over 50 percent of public officials in Kilimanjaro, Tanga, Dar es Salaam, Ruvuma and Mbeya regions believe that influential connections within public institutions are an obstacle to budget management. Exploring decisions made during the administration of public procurement is another indirect measure of the quality and efficacy of public service management. Results of the survey show that public officials generally believe that guidelines for public procurement management are adhered to and that the procurement process is done transparently and competitively as stipulated by the Public Procurement Act (PPA) and its regulations. This however, contradicts their own assessment (as reported by 45.8% of the respondents) that complying to PPA does not eliminate awarding contracts to unqualified bidders. When asked about the frequency of corrupt practices (such as bid rigging, bribery, contract modification to favour a particular bid and contractor “cartelling”) in the public procurement process, a majority of public officials gave non-committal responses to the effect that either they “do not know” or that such practices were “not frequent”, implying that the tendering process was fairly conducted in their respective institutions. These responses, however, are in stark contrast with the results of the enterprise survey which show that public procurement is prone to corruption (section 3.1 above). This discrepancy may be attributed to the fact that only a few public officials are conversant with procurement activities of their respective institutions. However, it may also be a deliberate attempt to hide misdeeds of public institutions from the public. Further research is needed to validate these findings. In general, the survey results reflect a high level of satisfaction among public officials with their employment in public service. In this respect, public officials overwhelmingly agree with the following statements which are quite revealing.

• “salary increase has helped my standard of living…”; • “my salary and benefits are very satisfactory”; and • “working in public sector is better than working in private

sector”.

Clearly, the responses show that as matters stand, a majority of the public officials prefer to hang on to their public service jobs. It is difficult to assess, however, the extent to which rent-seeking opportunities, which are abundant in several public service posts,


influence this preference, bearing in mind that, by their own assessment, public officials confirm that the practice of under-the-table payments is still thriving at a level of 66 percent.


Chapter 4: GOVERNANCE AND CORRUPTION IN KEY SECTORS

4.1 Judiciary System and Legal Sector

The malaise in the Judiciary and therefore, indeed, in the entire legal sector is worrisome. There is wide-spread reporting of petty corruption – affecting ordinary households – and there is also deep rooted and systematic grand corruption as is experienced (but reported indirectly) by the enterprises (and, in all probability, known also to the more senior public officials who have, throughout, given evasive answers to direct questions).

Households rank the judiciary as the third most corrupt public service provider (after traffic police and the police force ranked, respectively, first and second); over two thirds of the respondents express the view that the judiciary is “more corrupt” than other organs of the government, and over 76 percent of households believe that the judiciary does not deserve public trust. Some 57.4% of the public officials rate the district/primary courts as being either “dishonest” or “completely dishonest”

Enterprises view the judiciary as the second most corrupt institution after the police force. Survey results further show that:-

• 73.2 percent of enterprises view the judiciary as being “rarely” or “never” fair or impartial

• 68.6 percent of enterprises view the judiciary as being “rarely” or “never” honest or uncorrupted

• 87.4 percent of enterprises do not use the Court for dispute resolution

• 57.9 percent of enterprises report judges as being given bribes directly.

There are many obstacles that prevent firms from using the court system. The first in severity is the excessive amount of time taken by proceedings, as reported by 88.2 percent of respondents to the enterprises survey. It was reported that, on average, a case takes fifteen months to settle, with the longest cases taking an average of nineteen months. Other obstacles reported by over 70 percent of enterprises include difficulties in sentence enforcement,


complicated legislation, costs of accessing justice and judge’s lack of credibility and access to adequate legal counsel. Examination of the most severe obstacle, excessive length of duration of court cases, shows that Mara and Mwanza regions have the longest average duration per case of 33 months. Mbeya region has the shortest average duration of 2 months per case. For those enterprises with prolonged cases in the courts, 24 percent reported having been given an indication that there was a need to offer a bribe (and 58 percent of them accordingly paid out to the judges direct, with an additional 21 percent paying the court clerks and 16 percent paying to prosecutors or officials in the prosecutor’s office). Households experience similar obstacles to those cited by enterprises. Figure 6 below highlights the seriousness of these obstacles as perceived by households. Figure 6: Households’ Perception on Obstacles to Using Courts in Tanzania

4.2 Police Force

Figure 3.1.20: Households' Perception on Obstacles to Using Courts in Tanzania

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0

Too high court fees

Too high lawyer fees

High gratification

Court decisions influenced bycorruption

Incompetentmagistrates/judges

Too long process

Too complex process

Lack of efficient enforcementof court decision

Courts are too far

Other

NOT SERIOUS AT ALL FAIRLY SERIOUS EXTREMELY SERIOUS DK/NS


Previous sections of this report have shown that the police force in Tanzania is lowly rated by ordinary citizens in terms of honesty and integrity. The survey further sought to assess whether people trust the police force, the extent to which the force cooperated with them in tackling crime and the manner it treats people suspected of having committed a crime. When asked whether the “police force deserve trust”, 62.7 percent of households stated that the force does not deserve any trust. This finding is not surprising; it is consistent with the general perception held by people that the police force is corrupt. On whether police officers are faithful or not, 44.6 per cent of households felt that police officers are not faithful. However, according to 55 percent of households there is good cooperation between the police force and the people in tackling crime. On whether the police force takes timely action in case of emergency, 64 percent of households expressed satisfaction with the timely arrival of the force at the scene of crime and only 34 percent of households complain that the police are not at the scene of the crime on time. To assess people’s perception on how the police force treats people suspected of having committed a crime, households were asked whether any member of the household was involved or implicated in a dispute in which the police had to be called in. Sixteen percent of households responded in the positive. On whether any arrests were made after calling in the police, 71 percent of households confirmed that those members who were involved or implicated were in fact arrested and locked up in a police cell. When asked further whether those members held in police custody were bailed out, 83.6 percent of households responded in the positive. According to the respondents, various means were deployed to bail out the suspected culprits, as follows:

• Personal means (deployed by 10.3 percent of respondents); • Bribing the police (32.9 percent); • Assistance received from friends or relatives (47.8 percent); • Using high ranking officials to exert influence (1.4 percent) • Other unspecified means (7.5 percent)

It is obvious from the above findings that the system of handling people suspected of having committed a crime is fraught with corruption. Corruption is, in fact, the currency of bailing out suspected criminals, considering that 32.9 percent of suspected criminals in police custody directly pay bribes to the police in order


to get released and another 67 percent are released through dubious assistance received from friends or relatives or other “unspecified” personal means. The high proportion of suspected criminals that are remanded in police custody is also alarming. The fact that a high proportion of them are bailed out through corruption or other dubious means also questions the motives of arresting them in the first place. Arbitrary arrests of suspected criminals by the police are fertile grounds for perpetrating petty corruption by extorting bribes from innocent ordinary citizens.

4.3 Education Sector Education is a major sector which impacts nearly every citizen. Hence, the household survey focused on it further and asked households to assess the quality of education and extent of corruption in the education system. The results, which are summarized in Figure 7, show that 81 percent of the respondents rate the education services as good (including 11 percent who state that the services are very good), while 18 percent rate them as poor. This is a generous assessment, considering the constraints reflected earlier in the survey as impacting negatively on the households’ standard of living, notably high cost of living, inflation and inadequate remuneration for teachers. Figure 7: Households' Perception of Quality of Education Services

3%15%

70%

11% 1%

VERY POOR POOR GOOD VERY GOOD DK


While fees for public primary education have been abolished, it is known that some schools demand unofficial payments for specified or unspecified “additional” services that such schools provide.


When asked to indicate the amounts of such unofficial payments, 30.2 percent of household respondents stated that they are not subjected to any unofficial payment arrangements, while 46.4 percent are paying less than TZS 50,000 per year and another 20 percent are paying between TZS 50,000 and TZS 200,000 per annum. Apart from these payments, the survey reveals that households do not have to pay bribes to school officials and teachers in order to obtain public primary education services. This is a remarkable achievement.

4.4 Health Sector

Respondents of the household survey were asked to assess the quality of health services in public health delivery points. Figure 8 below summarizes results of the evaluations in terms of staff, facilities and surroundings. The findings show that, in general, the quality of services provided by the health sector is favourably perceived by households, whereby over 65 percent of respondents rate these services as “good” or “very good”. Figure 8: Households’ Perception of Quality of Health Services

Notwithstanding the above favourable assessment, the overwhelming perception is that medical personnel are corrupt, as rated by over 50 percent of household respondents. In this respect, doctors are perceived as the most corrupt, as rated by 71 percent

Figure 3.1.15: Households' Perception of Quality of Health Services

7.7

25.0

56.4

8.7

2.2

7.6

25.1

56.8

9.0

1.45.5

18.6

64.0

10.7

1.20.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

VERY POOR POOR GOOD VERY GOOD DK/NS

Medical Staff Fcilities Surroundings


of respondents, followed by nurses (68.2 percent) and ward attendants (67.5 percent). It is difficult to understand how such corrupt medical personnel can deliver good quality services. This apparent contradiction merits further research. When asked to compare the current quality of services with the situation three years ago, 53 percent of households consider that the services have improved and only 11 percent consider them to have deteriorated. On expectations for the future, 52.5 percent of households perceive that the services will improve further, while seven percent are pessimistic and expect the services to be worse than they are now.

Households were also asked to assess the gravity of obstacles currently facing the provision of quality health services in Tanzania. Details of the evaluations are summarized in Table 6 overleaf. It is clear that over 70 percent of households overwhelmingly rate all the six perceived obstacles listed in Table 6 as “serious” or “very serious”. The obstacles are: poor working conditions for medical staff, inadequate coverage of medical services, inadequate infrastructure facilities and equipment, low professional capacity of medical staff, outdated health sector reform programmes and cost of accessing health services.

Table 6: Households Perception on Obstacles to Quality

Health Services

Perceived Obstacle

Gravity of Obstacle (% of Respondents)

Not Serious

Serious

Very Serious

Poor working conditions for staff 12.5 25.1 46.8

Inadequate coverage 13.2 28.2 42.7

Inadequate buildings, infrastructure and equipment

12.5 25.6 59.3

Low professional capacity of medical staff

16.6 27.4 48.9

Outdated health sector reforms 13.8 31.5 43.1 Costs of accessing health services

19.4 30.6 48.3

4.5 Public Utilities


Access to public utilities such as electricity supply and piped water supply is limited countrywide, and these utilities are not available to many ordinary citizens in Tanzania, especially those living in the rural areas. The survey sought to assess the availability and quality of electricity and water supply services by households.

Findings of the survey reveal that only 15 percent of household respondents have electricity supply (TANESCO) connection, of whom 80 percent confirmed having obtained the connection “officially” with 4 percent admitting that they did so “unofficially”. However, around a quarter of those having a connection officially (28 percent) report that they had to bribe in order to obtain service. On whether it is common practice for an applicant of electricity connection to make unofficial payment to TANESCO, about 20 percent of the respondents responded in the positive. Twenty five percent of the respondents also stated that one can bribe TANESCO officials in order to have ones monthly electricity bill reduced. On reliability of service, three quarters of the household respondents confirmed that once connected, the electricity supply is reliable irrespective of whether one bribes TANESCO personnel or not. With respect to water supply, findings of the survey show that only eleven percent of households have a water supply service connection, of whom 89 percent secured it “officially”, but with 16 percent of them having had to bribe in order to secure connection. Three percent admitted having made the connection “unofficially”. It was stated by 18 percent of respondents that it is common practice to bribe staff of Water Supply Agencies in order to obtain water supply connection. On whether the service is reliable, 73.5 percent of households confirm that it is reliable, and only 26.5 of the respondents stated that it is unreliable. Around 12 percent of the respondents also stated that constant supply of water is guaranteed on bribing staff of the Water Supply Agencies.

4.6 Other Governance Indicators

Household respondents give pertinent indication of the level of governance in Tanzania in response to questions concerning the political environment, rule of law, human rights, transparency and accountability of government, and women rights.

(i) Political Environment


When asked to give their opinion on the functioning of the political environment in the framework of the multi-party system, households responded as follows: • Elections: 64.4 percent of respondents believe these to

be free and fair. • Joining a political party: 89.1 percent of households

believe that they are free to join any political party. • Allocation of resources to political parties: 56.1 percent

of households believe that the distribution of public resources to the parties is unfair, and are not happy with it.

(ii) Human Rights and Rule of Law

On questions concerning their rights as citizens and the application of the rule of law, the households responded as follows: • Respect and application of the law: 48.1 percent of

respondents believe that the law is respected, while 51 percent believe that the law is applied equally to all.

• Freedom of movement: 97.3 percent of respondents

believe that they are free to go anywhere.

• Freedom of worship: 97.4 percent of respondents believe that they have freedom to worship.

• Freedom of speech: 83.2 percent of respondents confirm

that they have freedom of speech.

• Access to education: 54.8 percent of respondents believe that they have access to education.

• Access to health services: 57.8 percent of respondents

believe that they have access to health services.

• Access to employment: Only 34.5 percent of respondents believe that there is equal opportunity to employment.

(iii) Transparency and Accountability of Government


Transparency and accountability are the landmarks of good governance. The integrity of the government depends on how transparent and accountable it is to the general public. On questions concerning transparency and accountability of government, households responded as follows: • Transparency: 55 percent of respondents believe that

the government is transparent. • Accountability: 54.4 percent of respondents believe that

the government is performing its duties in an accountable manner.

• Freedom of courts: 53 percent of respondents believe

that the courts are performing their duties freely without interference.

• Freedom of the National Assembly: 70.4 percent of

respondents believe that the Parliament is performing its duties freely without interference.

(iv) Respect for Women Rights

Households were also asked to assess whether women rights in Tanzania are respected, and their evaluation is summarized in Table 7 below. The findings show that over half of the respondents believe that women rights are “respected” or “highly respected” in five out of the seven areas listed in Table 7, namely reproductive rights, employment, maternal and child health care, education and participation in decision making. However, the majority of respondents (65 percent) believe that women rights are not respected in property and land ownership rights. Table 7: Respect for Women Rights

Area Respect (% of respondents)

Respected/highly respected

Somehow/not respected

Reproductive rights 60.3 37.7 Land issues 35.8 63.7 Ownership of property 37.4 62 Employment 55.8 43.5 Maternal & child health 68.7 31 Education 65.8 33.7 Decision making 55.7 43.8


Chapter 5: FIGHTING CORRUPTION

The ultimate goal of studying corruption is to enable the government to design effective measures of fighting corruption. The survey sought to assess the prevailing status of the efforts to fight corruption in the country.

5.1 Political Will One very positive finding from all the three surveys is that households, public officials and company executives believe that the current Tanzanian government has a genuine desire to fight corruption. This finding is particularly evident from the following responses by households:

• When asked to agree or disagree with the statement that “the government has no desire and will to fight corruption”, 68.4 percent of households disagree with this statement, only 30 percent agree.

• When asked to agree or disagree with the statement that

“corruption is a natural occurrence and a part of our daily lives, so denouncing it is unnecessary”, 90.5 percent of households disagree with this statement.

• When asked to comment on the effectiveness of the

government’s anti-corruption strategy, 75.2 percent of households agree that it is effective.

Another important finding of the survey is that public officials also believe that there is genuine desire to fight corruption within their own organizations. Yet another is the finding that most company executives disagree with statements that condone corruption, such as “corruption is a practical necessity for getting things done quickly”, “corruption is beneficial provided you are not caught”, and “corruption gives better services”. Sixty nine percent of company executives also confirmed their willingness to provide material support in government initiatives to combat corruption by way of donating funds or volunteering staff on company time and resources to participate in such initiatives.


5.2 Public Agencies in the Fight Against Corruption When asked to rate how some institutions have helped in combating corruption in Tanzania, households give a high rating to the media (90.5 percent), Faith-Based Organizations (88.7 percent), PCCB (83.7 percent), Non-Governmental Organizations (82.9 percent), political parties (81.5 percent), academics and teachers (80.1 percent), professional associations (79.2 percent) and Members of Parliament (74.7 percent). Similarly company executives give a high rate to Faith Based Organizations (93.8 percent), media (92.7 percent), NGOs (86.4 percent), Development Partners (85.4 percent), PCCB (84.6 percent), Legal and Human Rights Commission (79.8 percent) and Members of Parliament (77.1 percent). The least effective institution in combating corruption is the police force which has been rated by 60 percent of households and 69.2 of company executives as ineffective. This is followed by the courts which are rated by 52.6 percent of company executives as ineffective. The high rating given to PCCB is gratifying. It is even more gratifying as regards the perception in Tanzania of the activities of faith-based organizations, and it is so in sharp contrast to other countries of the world wherein their activities lead to deep divisions or fanaticism. The perception that the public media (press, TV and radio) is very effective in fighting corruption in Tanzania is a remarkable achievement; even in some developed countries (e.g. Italy) the media is often deployed to cover up corruption.

5.3 Corruption Reporting System

An effective anti-corruption strategy has as its core a system of reporting corruption that encourages individuals to come forward and report corrupt acts without fear of retribution. If this is a criteria for an effective corruption reporting system, then data from the household survey suggests that the corruption reporting system in Tanzania needs significant improvement to be fully effective. When asked whether they know the process they should follow to report a corrupt act, 40 percent of households responded in the


positive. When asked further to indicate where they would report such a corrupt act, only 53.3 of households knew where to report.


These findings reflect that a significant proportion of citizens were not only unaware of the process to follow to report corruption but they also did not know where to report. When examined from a regional perspective, the regions which have a slightly high proportion of households who know the process to follow to report a corrupt act are Shinyanga (66.1 percent), Ruvuma (53.3 percent), Dar es Salaam (45.6 percent) and Pwani (44.2 percent). The majority of households who said they knew where to report (41.8 percent) mentioned PCCB, while 22.7 percent said they would go to a police post. Other places mentioned by respondents are shown in Figure 9. They include Ward Executive Officers, Village/Mtaa Governments, District Commissioners, Members of Parliament and Councilors. Figure 9: Distribution of Households with Indication where to

Report a Corrupt Act

Many households stated that they are not willing to report corruption. When asked for reasons of this unwillingness 43 percent of households said that they feared being victimized. Other reasons stated as contributing to this unwillingness and their significances are shown in Figure 10. For instance, some believe

0.1

1.1

1.6

1.7

4.7

6.4

8.3

22.7

41.8

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Don’t Know

Member of Parliament

Other

Councilor

District Commissioner

Village/Mtaa Government Office

Ward Executive Officer

Police

PCCB

Percent


that they would not get protection from retaliation; some felt that it is useless to report because culprits would not be prosecuted; some do not wish to betray anyone; while some believe that even if the suspect is sent to court, the case may not be easy to prove. Figure 10: Distribution of Households by Reasons for not Reporting a Corrupt Act

5.4 Sources of Information When asked to indicate where they get information on corruption, 92.7 percent of households stated that the radio is their principal source. Other sources mentioned and their levels of significance are newspapers (39.3 percent), television (36.4 percent), public meetings (7.4 percent), and places of worship (6.1 percent). When asked to comment on the quality of the information, 68.4 percent of households confirmed that the quality of information during the past twelve months was very reliable, while 29.4 percent of households stated that the information was somehow reliable. Only one percent felt that the information was unreliable.

2.8

4.7

4.9

5.1

8.9

9.3

14.8

42.9

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Bribes are justified

The Case Cannot be proved

Other

Does Not Want to Betray Anyone

Useless Because Culprits Won’tbe prosecuted

Do Not Know Where to Report

Would Not Get Protection

Fear of Victimization

Percent



SECTION III: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Chapter 6: CONCLUSIONS

This survey is the first composite baseline survey of governance and corruption in Tanzania that covers households, public officials and business enterprises. The information collected from the survey offers a set of key messages that complement and reinforce the government’s stand on the fight against corruption. The findings show that:

(i) Corruption in Tanzania is not only significant, but also

persistent and serious. Comparing developmental problems currently facing the country, respondents to the survey rank corruption in public services as a major problem. It is ranked as the biggest problem by company executives, followed by inflation and high cost of living; it is ranked third by households after inflation and high cost of living and fourth by public officials after high cost of living, inflation and unemployment. The respondents overwhelmingly consider corruption – both petty and grand – to be very harmful to the national economy.

(ii) Corruption is a complex phenomenon that is not adequately

understood by the ordinary citizen and a majority of officials in both the public and private sectors, who normally relate the word “corruption” with only one or two types of corruption, notably “demand for unofficial payment”, “abuse of power”, or “demand for sex”. Hence several serious acts of corruption such as embezzlement and fraud are either not considered or recognized as corruption by many ordinary citizens and even by both public and private sector officials. This limited understanding of corruption in its different manifestations undermines strategies and plans to fight corruption.

(iii) Corruption in Tanzania is attributed to many causes, notably

greed, moral indecency, poor leadership, poverty, poor law enforcement and lack of accountability by public servants. However, it is not always appreciated that these are not stand alone causes; the causes are, in fact, intricately


related in a manner that is not easily discernible, and are probably mere manifestations of a more deeply rooted cause that has not been addressed in the fight against corruption such as greed which drives grand corruption and the latter in turn gives rise to and perpetuates poverty which then generates petty corruption.

(iv) The level of corruption is not uniform in various sectors of

the national economy. Findings of this survey clearly identify the major areas and public agencies that are hot spots for corrupt activities where more resources for fighting corruption should be directed. These areas are the police force, courts and local government authorities for petty corruption and public procurement, customs, revenue collection, and land allocation for grand corruption.

(v) A majority of public institutions in Tanzania need to focus on

improving performance in service delivery, both in terms of efficiency and quality of services delivered. Users of public services are entitled to efficient and good quality services. In addition, a central measure of governance is the quality of service the government delivers; whether it be in the form of law enforcement, regulation of markets or other social services such as health and education. Findings of this survey confirm that there are several key public institutions deemed to be ineffective and dishonest.

(vi) The government is not alone in the fight against corruption.

Respondents to this survey generally rated government efforts to fight corruption to be effective. However, they also cited other players whose activities in the war against corruption are recognized as being equally effective in supplementing government programmes, particularly the faith based organizations, media, academicians, NGOs, professional associations, Members of Parliament and political parties.

(vii) The system of fighting corruption in Tanzania lacks an

effective reporting mechanism. Results of the survey confirm that a majority of people do not know where and how to report a corrupt act. Even most of those who said that they know where to report corruption stated that they were unable to do so for fear of being victimized or because they believe that it is useless to do so since no action will be taken against the culprits. Corrupt people in society can only be prosecuted if reported.



Chapter 7: RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings of this survey and the conclusions made in the preceding chapter, a number of follow-up actions will need to be implemented, whose prime objectives are two-fold: to consolidate the achievements already made in the fight against corruption and to strengthen the capacity of various organs involved in this fight. In this respect we recommend a five-strand approach whose key elements are highlighted below: (i) More research is needed in high risk areas that are prone to

corruption. A precondition for effective solutions of combating corruption in the long term is the identification of the root causes of the problem. This is particularly important in high risk areas that are prone to corruption such as the police force, courts and local governments in the case of petty corruption; and public procurement, customs and revenue collection in the case of grand corruption. Better knowledge of the underlying causes of corruption in these areas will enable the government to devise effective strategies of combating corruption.

(ii) PCCB needs to enhance its capacity to tackle high profile

grand corruption cases. The experiences of corruption cited by the respondents of this survey demonstrate that the extent of both petty and grand corruption is considerable. However, the rate of prosecution does not reflect this reality, in the sense that very few cases of grand corruption have ever been successfully prosecuted. PCCB’s success rate of prosecuting grand corruption cases is not particularly impressive, a reflection of weak capacity in this area.

(iii) A majority of public institutions need to improve performance

in service delivery. To ensure this happens special attention should be given to the provision of effective oversight (through enforcement of rules and regulations relating to personnel and financial management, and more effective and transparent audit strategies and otherwise) in order to control abuse of power and financial malpractices. Strong ties with the media will be helpful in this respect, as a means of drawing public attention to corruption cases that are brought to light by audits and other oversight vehicles.


(iv) The government needs to strengthen collaboration with all

stakeholders involved in fighting corruption. The main organs in the civil society and private sector that are active in combating corruption include the media, faith-based organizations, NGOs and professional associations. Effective strategies of engaging these organs should be worked out. If real change is to occur, anti-corruption efforts must go beyond state interventions: other non-state actors must be actively mobilised.

(v) Promote measures to enhance greater public awareness of

corruption, its causes and consequences and to encourage the public to report corruption. A well sensitized public that is aware of corruption and that knows the causes of corruption and its consequences to national development is vital to the success of any anti-corruption strategy. Awareness alone, however, is not sufficient; it must be supported by an effective user-friendly system of reporting corruption, with in-built incentives – including protection – to encourage more people to report on corruption. Appropriate and proportional financial awards need to be urgently considered for those who blow the whistle and save government money.


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Governance and Corruption Survey – Evidence from Households, Enterprises and Public Officials, CDD – Ghana Accra.

FACEIT and ESRF (2002); The State of Corruption Report – Annual Report Dar es Salaam.

Government of Kenya (2007); National Corruption Perception Survey, Kenya Anti–Corruption Commission Nairobi.

Government of Malawi (2005); Governance and Corruption Baseline Survey, Millennium Consulting Group Ltd, Lilongwe.

Government of Nigeria (no year); Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Survey – Analysis of Survey Results, Households, Enterprises and Public Officials, Lagos

Government of Sierra Leone (no year); Governance and Corruption Study, CDMA/GRS i Freetown.

Government of Zambia (no year); Corruption Survey Report: Zambia National Governance Baseline Survey – Executive Summary Lusaka.

Kaufmann, D et al (2008); Governance Indicators, World Bank Washington D C. Political Economy Centre (2000); Corruption in the public Sector in Thailand,

Chulalongkorn University Bangkok. The United Republic of Tanzania (1999); The National Anti–Corruption Strategy

and Action Plan for Tanzania, President’s Office State House Dar es Salaam.

The United Republic of Tanzania (2006); The National Anti – Corruption Strategy and Sector Specific Action Plans for all Ministries, Independent Government departments and Executive Agencies Phase II 2006 – 2010, President’s Office State House Dar es Salaam

USAID, nola and PCCB (2007); Yajue Makosa ya Rushwa Yaliyoainishwa Katika Sheria ya Kuzuia na Kupambana na Rushwa Namba 11 ya 2007

Documents

Tanzania: anti corruption survey volume 1