Many will be alarmed that the perception out there is that not enough is being done to fight corruption, especially in the public sector.
Or how else can one explain the fact that Tanzania has dropped 24 places in the global corruption index in over the last one year? This will certainly be disheartening, especially for President Jakaya Kikwete, who has taken every opportunity to reaffirm his commitment to fighting graft.
It's, after all, during this Fourth Phase Government that a prime minister was forced to resign over corruption allegations and several senior government officials, including former Cabinet ministers have been hauled to court to answer abuse of office charges that led to the loss of billions of shillings.
But apparently, this has not gone far enough and the Kikwete administration must do more to regain the earlier momentum.
According to the Global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report released on Tuesday by the Berlin-based international anti-graft watchdog, Transparency International, Tanzania is sadly down from position 102 in 2008, to 126 in 2009, reflecting a major setback in the anti-corruption campaign.
This and other previous reports are painting a not-so-attractive picture of our country, hence the need for the Government to move quickly and put its house in order.
It’s disappointing that just when we had begun to imagine that the country was on track, as a politically stable nation that is free from corruption and red tape, and where foreign and local investments are guaranteed prosperity, the latest reports are not flattering at all.
The sharp decline for a country that has seen significant progress, with an impressive economic growth rate and a high score in good governance in the past decade should be a source of concern to all.
Tanzania has in recent times been cited as one of the potential African economic tiger but this could vanish unless the grim statistics are reversed. And it will take the concerted efforts of all of us, as it takes two for corruption to tango.
Work needs to be done to restore the significant progress that has been reflected in comparatively good rankings the country has enjoyed in various global reports.
However, reports released this year indicate that we may just have engaged the reverse gear and this is simply unacceptable.
The Doing Business 2010, which was released several months ago, indicated that the country dropped from No. 126, in last year’s survey, to position 131 this year.
And it was mainly due to the increasing bureaucracy, which result in high the cost of starting new businesses.
The annual Travel & Tourism (T&T) Competitiveness Report also said Tanzania was becoming less and less attractive as a tourism destination, as its ranking slipped from position 88 last year to 99 this year. Dilapidated facilities were some of the reasons cited for the poor show.
The Global Competitiveness Index also ranked Tanzania 113th out of 134 countries surveyed in 2008-2009, down from 97th and 104th places in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, respectively.
This means that investors are increasingly shunning the country for more competitive destinations due to, among other factors, poor infrastructure, and lousy policies.
It is no consolation that we are ahead of our neighbours Kenya, who were ranked 146th and Uganda, 130th in the Corruption Perception Index.
Rwanda continues to excel, posting the 89th position in the CPI, and increasingly demonstrating that size and population may be an advantage but innovativeness, commitment and transparency even better in attracting investment and promoting national prosperity.
