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About 25 public servants, among them six
from the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) have been dragged to court over corruption allegations between July 2014 and January 2015.
from the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) have been dragged to court over corruption allegations between July 2014 and January 2015.
Minister of State, President’s Office (Good Governance), George Mkuchika disclosed this here yesterday, when speaking at a three-day workshop on the importance of Good Governance and Anti-Corruption Strategy in management of public offices.
The workshop brought on board different players in public and private sectors, clerics, development partners as well as representatives of tax collection watchdogs from East African countries—Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
“As the government, we are struggling to address corruption within the public sector because we know corruption creates poverty, increases the gap between the poor and the rich, incites social unrest and dramatically reduces the country’s capacity to achieve better levels of development,” Mkuchika said.
He stated that corruption within TRA may lead to loss of government revenues, loss of trust, misallocation of resources and generally failure to attain the corporate mission and vision.
The minister however said despite all the efforts made so far, corruption is still a major challenge within the TRA and if not addressed, “it will continue to erode the collection of government revenues.”
He observed that unscrupulous importers conspire with TRA officials to insert wrong HS codes during importation, noting that a good example is when finished goods are classified as raw materials.
“…through the corruption network, even examination of goods is not conducted accurately. Corruption blinds TRA officials during containers’ check-ups such that there have been cases where rolls of commercial fabric materials and clothing are classified as mosquito nets,” he said.
He further stated that some revenue officials conspire with importers to divert transit vehicles, fuel and other essential goods into home use through fraudulent validation of entries alleging that goods have already crossed into neighbouring countries.
Mkuchika commended TRA for doing a god job of collecting taxes for the country’s socio-economic development.
He said for the past five years, TRA’s revenue collections have escalated from 4.5trn/- in 2009/2010 fiscal year, to an astounding 9.52trn/- in 2013/14 which was a 17.6 percent increase from that of 2012/2013 which was 7.8 trn/-.
“The government commends TRA for their efforts in revenue collection which enables the government to sustain its recurrent expenditure,” said Mkuchika.
Earlier, TRA Commissioner General, Rished Bade disclosed that during the workshop, participants were expected to chip-in with inputs in the TRA’s third ‘National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan’ (NACSAP III).
He said the strategy is meant to eliminate corruption and related misconducts within the government and TRA circles.
The phase 3 of Anti-corruption strategy and Action plan is to be endorsed in the National Assembly before being fully implemented.
Dar es Salaam Regional Sheikh, Alhad Musa called on the people to team up in the fight against corruption, saying: “Corruption is a sin and needs to be heavily denounced.”
For his part Rev George Fupe, who is Assistant Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT), Eastern and Coastal Diocese said: “As religious leaders we will not get tired of condemning corruption through which our country loses billions of shillings every year.”
“I continue to appeal to the conscience of our leaders and the public to do all we can to uproot this evil,” he said.
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