Corruption main feature in debate on policy issues

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Dar es Salaam. Corruption was the main feature during a debate on policy issues by leaders of opposition parties here on Thursday evening.

During the debate the participants — CUF chairman Ibrahim Lipumba, NCCR’s James Mbatia, NLD’s Emmanuel Makaidi and ACT-Wazalendo leader Zitto Kabwe — were asked to list five challenges that the country has been encountering and how they will address them if their were voted into country’s top office.

In their responses, the participants cited corruption as the major challenge in the country.

All the participants were of the view that it is impossible to end corruption unless organs responsible for fighting the vice are overhauled.

According to Mr Kabwe, the vague accountability system among public officials as well as other wananchi was an obstacle in the campaign against corruption.

He called for an establishment of a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) which would be dealing with major corruption cases as well as strengthening of the Public Leaders Ethics Secretariat.

“A report by CAG [Controller and Auditor General] indicated that Tanzania lost over Sh800 billion after transit goods to the neighbouring countries were sold in the country, denying the country revenue. The issue was just reported by newspapers but no measures were taken against the culprits, we need SFO to deal with such issues,” said Mr Kabwe.

Mr Mbatia criticised some presidential candidates who have been claiming that they will end corruption if they will be voted into power. According to him under the current system where all organs responsible for fighting corruption are corrupt it will be a miracle to address the problem.

“You might be clean, you might have a genuine motive of fighting corruption but you will be compromised by the system when you become president; we need to overhaul the system by rewriting an inclusive constitution,” said he. The participants also spoke about a wide range of issues from improving agriculture, ending albino killings, ending poaching as well as improving the education system.

Prof Lipumba accused the current and previous governments of politicising agriculture despite the fact that over 80 per cent of Tanzanians depend on the sector.

According to Prof Lipumba, the government has been changing the slogans with regard to agricultural improvement programmes instead of tackling major issues which are lack of agriculture inputs and subsides, poor infrastructure, woes on sustainable markets, problems of extension officers as well as unavailability of agro-processing industries.

Dr Makaidi said Tanzania would never win a war against poaching and wild animal trafficking if the culprits will continue to be in the government.