Aslimia 20 inaishia kwa mafisadi!

[mwanakijiji]

`Corruption eats 20 pct of govt budget`

2009-03-03 10:37:16
By Guardian Reporter


A new human rights report has highlighted shortfalls in the country`s accountability and governance system which have led to substantial losses in the national budget each year through corruption.

The 2008 Human Rights Report for Tanzania was released by the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, and copied to The Guardian yesterday by the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam.

It says the losses are incurred through theft, fraud and fake purchasing transactions, adding: ``There was little accountability in most government entities?20 per cent of the government`s budget in each fiscal year was lost to corruption, including theft and fraud, and fake purchase transactions.``

It further notes that there were a number of continuing human rights problems, elaborating: ``Police and prison guards used excessive force against inmates and suspects, at times resulting in death, and police impunity was a problem.``

According to the report, prison conditions in the country were harsh and life threatening, there were widespread police corruption and violation of legal procedures, and the judiciary suffered from corruption and inefficiency in the lower courts.

Freedom of speech and press were partly limited, governmental corruption remained a problem, the authorities restricted the movement of refugees; societal violence against women persisted, and trafficking in persons and child labour were problems, it says.

``There were no politically motivated killings by the government or its agents during the year; however, on several occasions security forces used lethal force against citizens, including persons in custody,`` it points out, adding that senior police officials accused subordinate officers of unlawful killings.

Citing a specific example, the report says in January villagers at Isaka village in Kahama District reported that local policemen beat 16-year-old James Deus to death while he was in custody for allegedly being part of an armed robbery attack on a petrol station in Shinyanga Region.

``No information was available on how the authorities responded to the killing,`` notes the report, also documenting Legal and Human Rights Centre findings that there were 17 incidents of mob violence, 30 of ``witch`` killings, and 13 of torture in police custody from January to June.

It says there were unofficial reports of hundreds of persons with albinism killed across the country during the year but some 26 - mostly women and children - were confirmed killed.

Numerous others were mutilated in the misguided belief that their body parts could be used to create wealth and at year`s end there were approximately 270,000 such persons living in the country, according to the report.

Turning to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, it says the Tanzanian constitution and law prohibit the practice of torture and cruel punishment but there were reports of police officers abusing, threatening and otherwise mistreating civilians, suspected criminals, and prisoners during the year.

``Beatings were the method most commonly used,`` it says, citing an incident in April in which more than 150 villagers in the Ormelili, Embukoi, and Orkolili villages in Siha District of Kilimanjaro Region protested routine harassment by local police officers.

The report says prison conditions remained harsh and life-threatening, adding: ``Diseases were common and resulted in numerous deaths in prisons?guards sometimes beat and sexually abused prisoners during the year.``

It was vocal on arbitrary arrests and detention, saying: ``The constitution prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention; however, both were problems.``

It gives the example of an incident in May in which police raided the homes of seven citizens in Pemba who had sent a petition to the United Nations asking for recognition of the right of Pemba residents to self-determination.

On the role of the police and security apparatus, the report says the police force remained underfunded and largely inefficient, but adds that police use of excessive force, police corruption, and impunity were serious problems.

Contacted for comment on the report, which largely blamed the police force for a number of failures, Inspector General of Police Said Mwema declined to give an immediate response.

He said: ``I have not yet received and gone through the report?.so I cannot comment further. Give me time to work on it.``

He asked The Guardian to forward to him a copy of the report so that he could flick through it and give informed comments.

On denial of fair public trial, the report is explicit that the constitution provides for an independent judiciary but the judiciary remained underfunded, corrupt, inefficient and subject to executive influence.

``Corruption was particularly pervasive among lower court officials and court clerks?.Court clerks took bribes to decide whether or not to open cases and to hide or misdirect the files of those accused of crimes,`` it notes.

Quoting news reports, it says magistrates of lower courts occasionally accepted bribes to determine guilt or innocence, pass sentences, or decide appeals of cases coming from the primary courts to district courts.

The report says the constitution provides for freedom of speech but does not explicitly provide for freedom of the press.

In the area of societal abuses and discrimination, it says some Muslim groups claimed that the government discriminated against them in hiring, education and law enforcement practices and some Christian groups said that all sensitive government positions were filled by Muslims.

This was despite the fact that the government policy prohibits discrimination against any individual on the basis of religious beliefs or practices, it adds.

``But neutral observers said that there did not appear to be government bias toward any particular religious group,`` notes the report.

It hails the government for launching a crackdown on high-profile corruption suspects, saying: ``Beginning in October, the government arrested and filed charges against more than twenty individuals, including four officials of the Bank of Tanzania, for their involvement in a scheme to obtain funds fraudulently from the bank`s external payment arrears account.``

However, despite expressing appreciation for the efforts, it notes that the World Bank?s Worldwide Governance Indicators reflected that corruption remained a serious problem.

``The government continued to use specialised agencies to fight corruption, but their effectiveness was limited,? says the 33-page report.

My Take:

So how are we doing good economically?

[Mpita Njia]

Hadithi mkuu, tena za kusadikika

[mwanakijiji]

New Chinese owners got this Congolese wood-processing plant working again.
Paolo Woods for TIME

Togo is like much of West Africa — small, poor and an occasional producer of sensational soccer players — but for the bank. Lom?, Togo's capital, is home to Ecobank, a 21-year-old pan-African retail and corporate bank that, according to CEO Arnold Ekpe, employs 11,000 people in 620 branches in 26 countries, with a balance sheet of $8 billion.

Unlike a lot of other banks, Ecobank is expanding. It has opened 200 branches since 2006 and aims to set up in three more countries by June. What's more, it actually makes money: annual profits were up 47%, to $191 million, in 2007 and up 32%, to $104 million, for the third quarter of 2008 alone, the latest period for which figures are available. Even more extraordinary, it is managing to raise money in the "crunched" capital markets — $700 million since August. Granted, the world's banks are in a historic crisis. That does not make any less arresting the thought that some of the best-performing bankers on the planet right now come from a place called Togo. "Warren Buffett is based in Nebraska," says Ekpe. "It's not where you are. It's what you do."

Up to a point. In Africa's case, the perception has long been that where you are renders all but irrelevant what you do. Africa is hopeless, a place of war and famine seemingly populated almost entirely by tyrants and children with flies in their eyes. According to this view, if Africa generates any kind of growth, it is in suffering — and in the overseas aid sent to address that, now a $40-billion-a-year industry. Naturally, with a new appeal every year and a new disaster every other, some people have begun to wonder if all that money is doing any good. They argue that aid creates dependence, fuels corruption, undermines democracy and stifles development. They have written books with titles like The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working (by an ex-spokesman for the World Bank in Africa) and Dead Aid (by a Zambia-born former Goldman Sachs investment banker).
And that debate is important, no doubt. But it is drowning out a more significant development. Ecobank's success is not an isolated blip, and aid is no longer Africa's main source of foreign income. Africa is becoming a business destination.

In 2006, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, foreign investment in Africa reached $48 billion, overtaking foreign aid for the first time. That gap has only widened, reflecting a quadrupling of foreign investment since 2000. As the senior adviser in Africa for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), David Nellor, noted in a report last September, sub-Saharan Africa today resembles Asia in the 1980s. "The private sector is the key driver," wrote Nellor, "and financial markets are opening up." War is down. Democracy is up. Inflation and interest rates are in single digits.

Terms of trade have improved. Crucially, said Nellor, "growth is taking off." The IMF puts Africa's average annual growth for 2004 to '08 at more than 6% — better than any developed economy — and predicts the continent will buck the global recessionary trend to grow nearly 3.3% this year.
Yes, Africa is still a continent of commodities — with its forests, oil fields and mines — and demand for commodities has plummeted. Yes, Africa still has its Darfurs, Somalias, Congos and Zimbabwes. But commodity prices are higher than they were in the 1990s. Most Africans are not middle class, but most also no longer live in extreme poverty. The World Bank says the percentage of Africans living on $1.25 a day or less dropped from 59% to 51% from 1996 to 2005 and has decreased further since.

In an article for the online journal allAfrica in February, Oxford University economist Paul Collier and Witney Schneidman, who advised President Obama on Africa during his campaign, noted that Africa now offers the world's highest rate of return on investment. "Africa, usually the poorest performing region in the world economy, is now likely to be among the best-performing," they wrote. "Moreover, the region has been largely immune from the current banking crisis...The continent's financial institutions did not venture into derivatives or sub-prime mortgages." Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank's chief economist for Africa, says the current downturn might be unfair to the continent, since it is "not remotely Africa's fault," but it should not alter the underlying trend: "There has definitely been a transition in the last few years. The continent now has huge potential." Or as Stephen Hayes, president and CEO of the Corporate Council on Africa, puts it, "Africa offers more opportunity than any place in the world."

Perhaps the most compelling evidence that Africa is now a business destination is China's new love for it. While the old superpowers still agonize over Africa's poverty, the new one is captivated by its riches. Trade between Africa and China has grown an average of 30% in the past decade, topping $106 billion last year. Chinese engineers are at work across the continent, mining copper in Zambia and cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo and tapping oil in Angola. Nor is this merely exploitative.

China bought its access by agreeing to create a new infrastructure for Africa, building roads, railways, hospitals and schools across the continent. The current crisis is not expected to affect China's march in Africa: on the contrary, with the West's plans in Africa on hold at best, Beijing views it as an opportunity to extend China's lead. "We will continue to have a vigorous aid program here, and Chinese companies will continue to invest as much as possible," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in South Africa in January. "It is a win-win solution." Dambisa Moyo, who wrote Dead Aid, says those who need convincing about Africa should ask themselves if they are convinced about China, "because if you back China, you're backing Africa." Ecobank CEO Ekpe says part of the explanation for China's zeal for Africa is a new way of looking at Africans. "[The Chinese] are not setting out to do good," he says. "They are setting out to do business. It's actually much less demeaning."

And that gets to what, for Africans, is the emotional heart of the matter — and why joining the business world means so much. Though it rarely occurs to Westerners who've been instructed that Africa needs their help, charity is humiliating. Not emergency charity, of course: when disaster strikes, emergency aid is always welcome, whether in New Orleans or Papua New Guinea. But long-term charity, living life as a beggar, is degrading.

Andrew Rugasira, 40, runs Good African Coffee, a Ugandan company he set up in 2004 to supply British supermarkets under the motto "Trade, not aid." He is emblematic of a new generation of African antiaid, antistate entrepreneurs. For Rugasira, aid not only "undermines the creativity to lift yourself out of poverty" but also "undermines the integrity and dignity of the people.

It says, These are people who cannot figure out how to develop." Aid even manages to silence those it is meant to help. "African governments become accountable to Western donors," says Rugasira, "and Africa finds itself represented not by Africans but by Bono and Bob Geldof. I mean, how would America react if Amy Winehouse dropped in to advise them on the credit crisis?"

And if that's a striking inversion, consider another one. Look back at the African growth figures once more. Compare them with this year's forecasts for the developed world. Who's the basket case now?