PUBLIC SERVICES AND PROFESSIONALISM

OTHER ESSENCE PARTS

 PUBLIC SERVICE

 PUBLIC SERVICE ETHICS

 PUBLIC SERVICE INTEGRITY

 PROFESSIONALISM

 ENFORCEMENT OF LEADERSHIP ETHICS AND

ENTEGRITY

 SERVICE CHARTER

 CORRUPTION

PREPARED BY: CHARLES J. MWAMTOBE

CONTACT: charzy03@gmail,com
FROM: TANZANIA
INTRODUCTION
THE AIM OF THIS DOCUMENT IS TO PROVIDE THE RELATIONSHIP THA EXIST
BETWEEN LEADERS AND THEIR DUTIES. WITHSTANDING WITH THE ETHICAL
CODES THA GOVERN THEM IN THEIR DAY-TO-DAY ACTIVITIES. NEVERTHELESS
THE DOCUMENT PROVIDE WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF LEADERS DO NOT PLAY THEIR
PART RESPONSIBLY, WHAT ARE THE IMPART TO THE SOCIETY AND NATION IN
GENERAL

LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP is the activity of leading a group of people or an organization or the ability to do

this, Leadership involves
establishing a clear vision,
sharing that vision with others so that they will follow willingly,
providing the information ,knowledge and methods to realize that vision, and
coordinating and balancing the conflicting interests of all members and stakeholders

A leader is "a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal". A
leader by its meaning is one who goes first and leads by example, so that others are motivated to
follow him. This is a basic requirement. To be a leader, a person must have a deep-rooted
commitment to the goal that he will strive to achieve it even if nobody follows him!

A public service is a service which is provided by government to people living within its
jurisdiction, either directly (through the public sector) or by financing provision of services. That
certain service should be available to all, regardless of income. Even where public services are
neither publicly provided nor publicly financed, for social and political reasons they are usually
subject to regulation going beyond that applying to most economic sectors

Public services are seen as so important that for moral reasons their universal provision should
be guaranteed. They may be associated with fundamental human rights (such as the right to
water). In modern, developed countries, the term public service often includes some of them are:

 Electricity
 Education

 Emergency services

 Environmental protection

 Fire service

 Health care

Ethics in public service it deals with the what is good and wrong behavior, it evaluate conduct
against some absolute criteria and puts negative or positive value on it(According Hanekom
1984:58).Is usually considered a branch of political ethics which address the fundamental
premises of a public administrators duty “Stewad”to the public.

Ethics has to with the action of man and therefore, it requires adjustment in the action and
attitudes of the public managers in relation to his colleagues and the public as well as in relation
to himself. (Heynes 1986)

Ethics code of conducts

In order a public service to be efficient and respected public servant must behave and conduct
themselves in manner as stipulated below:

 Respect all Human and be courteous, A public Servant has right of being a member of
any Political party and can vote both for his/her political party and in general election,
not only that even in the issue of religion to become member of any religious.
  Perform diligently and in a disciplined manner, for efficient performance a public servant
will perform his/her duties diligently and with a high degree of discipline. Example like
Obey and effect lawful directives, carry out assigned duties efficiently
 Promote team work, Public servant will strive to promote team work by offering help to
co-employees whenever the need so arises. It will be achieve by the Giving instruction
which are clear and undistorted. Ensuring that subordinated clear understand the scope of
their work and encourage them
 Pursue excellence in service, Since the public services is geared towards provision of
excellent service, public servants will do that strive to achieve the highest standard of
performance, strive to acquire new knowledge and skills continuously and use hem
effectively
 Exercise responsibility and good stewardship, A public servant shall act within
boundaries of the authority and responsibility delegated, in doing so shall make decision
in line with authorized standards and procedures
 Promote transparency and accounatblty, a public servant will adhere to and practice
meritocratic principles in appointments, promotions and while delivering any
service .He/she will be accountable both for actions and inactions through normal tiers of
authority

Principles of managing Ethics in the public service

Ethical standard for public services should be clear, There should be a concern well publicized
statement of core ethical stand aid and principles that guide public services ignored to conduct
work in ethic manner. Example by using code of ethics as a manner of ethical standard

Ethical standard should be reflected in the legal framework

Legal framework of public servant should be basic way of communicating them in a minimum
obligatory standard and principle of behaviors’ for every public servant,. There should be laws
polices which regulate which regulates conducts of public servant, Also laws and regulation
should be stated to the basic value of public service guidance for displinary action
PROFESSIONALISM AND PUBLIC SERVICE INTEGRITY

Professionalism refers to the high standard that you accept from a person who is well trained in
a particular job or career, (Zombwe and Mshiu2006) .It is referred to the competence of
using skills in a field of work .It can be also defined as the over all values that encompasses
loyalty,neutrality,transparency,punctuarity,effectiveness and impartiality . Professionalism
to be professional is to understand the importance of our jobs in the public sector, to have respect
for ourselves and the organizations that we represent, and to act accordingly. Each individual is
to deal with issues, whether positive or negative, in a mild and straightforward manner whenever
possible. Without professionalism in public administration, the overall perception of our work
and our organizations would undoubtedly falter.

Public ethics, these are values that an administrator is supposed to have, high degree of moral
standards by displaying integrity, and be mindful of laws and regulations in order to successfully
practice and promote transparency of government, (Gichure 1997). The word ethics comes from
the Greek word ethos, meaning something like ‘morals’. Guy (1990:06), views ethics as
different from etiquette because it goes beyond mere social convention. In fact, ethics is defined
as the systematic reflection on what is moral where as morality being the whole of opinions,
decisions and actions with which people express what they think is good or right. The field of
ethics (or moral philosophy) involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of
right and wrong behavior. Morality is also greatly influenced by upbringing, parents, other
relatives” influence, religion, school and geographic region.

Integrity is a concept of consistency of action, values, methods, measures, principles,

expectations and its outcome. Integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of
one's actions. Integrity can be regarded as the opposite of hypocrisy, {Pfiffner and Presthus
1960}. It is sometimes referred as the adherence to ethical principles, rules and regulations.
A public servant or a civil servant must be up right with very good behavior and
unchallenged caliber .One should exercise fairness in decision making, careful in the use of
public properties and avoid any circumstances leading into corruption . Public servant
fulfill all these by adhering to the set of rules which are provided according to the
professions. The professions like medical and teaching each has its code of ethics and
conduct.
WHY ENFORCEMENT OF PROFESSIONALISM AND INTEGRITY IN PUBLIC
SERVICE ETHICS?

The importance of enforcing professionalism and integrity to the public administrators in an

organization, firms, and institutions are as follows:

It ensure proper decision making in public administration, the enforcement of

professionalism, public ethics and integrity ensures proper decision making in public
administration since no public servant will be serving out of his or her professionals’ morals and
ethics in attending daily duties as public servant. For example dealing with the case of servant
who misbehave in an office in taking any decision the administrator will consult the professional
code of conduct that is proper way of decision making, Basu (1990).

Effective utilization of the available resources, moral administrators use cooperate together in
performing organization works which enhance interaction as it become easier to the utilization of
the resources which at the end promote to the effectiveness of the organization. Also when there
is professionalism employee will have sense of responsibility and accountability to the firm and
therefore they will be utilizing the resources effectively without unnecessary wastage of
resources hence the achievement of the organization goal hence firm grows faster due to
maintenance of resources, (Henry (2007)

It increase team work among the workers, this is because professionalism and integrity creates
trust between members of the administration and creates more collaboration among team work
due to the behavior and good attitude towards their work. Hence lead to effective performance of
works in an organization because every person is able to control his/ her behavior due to the
fundamental of public ethics, (Pfiffner and Presthus1960)

Creates more productivity in an organization, due to competence in work, personal ethics and
integrity, it increases creativity and productivity of products and reaching goals of respective
targeted goals. Due to competence in administration it promotes efficiency of work due to
division of labor and delegation of power to different people. For example in Mzumbe university
there is division of labor that forms systematic and effective performance of works in an
organization, (Pfiffner and Presthus1960)
Professionalism support managers in leading discussion on ethics and integrity by providing
practical tool and technical, these may include worksheet or case studies based in real and
relevant organizational for instance which helps manager raise ethical dilemmas and engage their
staff in ethical discussion. Also it coordinates the meeting in order to solve several problems
which hinder the organization. For example; if there is matter which rises or faces in the
organization, the manager should call the meeting to discuss that matter professionally in order
to solve the problem earlier, (Pfiffner and Presthus(1960)

Encourage good performance ; the enforcement of professionalism, public ethics and integrity
it help in improving of performing daily duties in providing public services among the public
servant since the public administrator they are forced not to work out of their professional
regulations and public ethic that also improve the performance as they basically aim to ensure
smooth running of public activities. For example workers as so longer they follow their
professional regulation and code of ethics they are ensured of job security that can improve
performance, (Basu 1990)

Minimize conflict; conflicts are misunderstanding, it can be intra or inter personal

misunderstanding. Workers who respect each other boundaries and conduct themselves
professionally rarely have disagreements that cannot be resolved efficiently. Professionalism in
business also benefits diverse environments in which business people and their clients have
several different perspectives and opinions. Professional behavior helps business people avoid
offending members of different cultures or backgrounds, (Pfiffner and Presthus1960)

Promote Respect among members in an institution; due to the professionalism, ethical

behavior and integrity in an organization establishes respect for authority figures, clients and co-
workers. In an organization there are different activities which need different professionals, so
everyone in an organization has the crucial duty which depend to each other. Hence they try to
their level best to respect each other in order to maintain the ethical behavior in organization. For
example in the organization if the manager is very honest, truthfully it creates the good image to
the workers so the workers may respect that manager and themselves, (Basu1990).
Professionalism in public administration encourages more effective invention and
innovation; this is the process of obtaining new method or ways of performing a certain duty.
Since the organizations have well skilled personnel it provides a room for invention and
innovation of new things. For example the innovation of new database which support the
installation of more data so this may lead to the effectiveness of work in the management
because the innovation helps the management to progress.

Maintain Accountability; professionally a person with integrity must be accountable to any job
assigned to him or her. As being responsible one is promoted to self motivation in focusing
different challenges in the process of administration. Hence motivates one on being accountable
in performing different tasks. With a state of being accountable to different task one is ethical
because he fulfills duties assigned to. One is more respected due to the outcomes of positive
results of completing duties, (Pfiffner and Presthus1960).

Therefore, professionalism, public ethics and integrity are fundamentals of public

administration. All these play a great role to the successfulness or achievement of the pre
determined goals within an organization. As a manager you should apply those fundamental in
office in order to improve efficiency, accountability, transparency and remove all loophole for
corruption. Behind core values is the creation, implementation and enforcement of a code of
conduct. A code of conduct is a more detailed listing of both required and prohibited behaviors
for all team members.

ENFORCEMENT OF LEADERSHIP ETHICS AND ENTEGRITY

Leadership Ethics
Ethical Leadership Principles

In this section, we present five principles that are believed to lead to the development of ethical
leadership. These are respect for others, service to others, justice for others, honesty toward
others, and building community with others (DuBrin, 2010; Northouse, 2013).

Respect for Others: Ethical leaders treat others with dignity and respect. This means that they
treat people as ends in themselves rather than as means to their own ends. This form of respect
recognizes that followers have goals and ambitions and confirms followers as human beings who
have worth and value to the organization.

Service to Others: Ethical leaders serve others. They behave in an altruistic fashion rather than
ethical egoism. These leaders put followers first – their prime reason for being is to support and
nurture subordinates, (Kanungo & Mendonca, 1996).

Justice for Others: Ethical leaders ensure that justice and fairness are central parts of their
decision making. This means treating all subordinates in very similar ways, except when there is
a very clear need for differential treatment and there is transparency about why this need exists

Honesty towards others: Ethical leadership requires honesty whereby dishonesty destroys trust.
and honesty increases trust and builds the leader–follower relationship. This means balancing
openness with disclosing only what is appropriate.
Public leader simply means any person holding any of the following public offices includes
Presidents, Vice President, Prime Minister, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, Chief Secretary,
Permanent Secretaries and alike in accordance to Section 4 of the The Public Leadership Code of
Ethics Act No. 13 of 1995.

Structure of Ethics for Public Leaders

Tanzania Public Ethics Framework is enshrined under:

1. Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, 1977 as amended

 Public Leaders Secretariat
2. Statutory Framework:
 The Public Code of Ethics Act, Cap 398 (1995)
 The Public Service Act, Cap. 298 (2000).
 The Public Code of Ethics and Conduct, 2005
 The Local Government Acts
 Professional Codes

Enforcement of Leadership ethics & integrity in Tanzania

Enforcement of leadership are divided into two categories namely Internal and External
Enforcements.

1. Internal enforcement
Constitution: Established the Public Leaders Secretariat under Article 132(1) of the
Constitution of United Republic of Tanzania, 1977 as amended charged with the power to
inquiry into the behaviour and conduct of any public leader for the purpose of ensuring
while discharging their duties comply with provisions of laws.

Ethics Inspection Unit: the unit established in 1998 with the purpose of promoting
ethics in the Public Service along with implementation of the Code of Ethics and
Conduct for Public Service. The currently Code of Ethics and Conduct for Public Service
was issued by the President’s Office Public Service Management in 11th January, 2005.
The Public Leaders Code of Ethics Act No. 13 of 1995 (Cap.398): Under Section 6. of
the Act the Code of Ethics for public leaders shall seek as far possible to institute and
invoke the following principles in respect of the conduct of public leaders.

a) Public leaders uphold highest ethical standards while is in office so as to

bring confidence and trust in the public service;
b) that public leaders shall have obligations:-
(i) to perform their official duties and arrange their private affairs
in a manner that would bear the closest public scrutiny, an
obligation that is not fully discharged by simply acting lawfully;

(ii) established a procedure for declaration of all property or assets

owned by, or liabilities owned to him, his spouse or unmarried
minor children, without prejudice to the right of wives and
husbands of public leaders to own properly independently of their
spouses;

c) Uphold the Rule of Law;

d) Leader’s private interest should not undermine government action;
e) Avoid conflict of interest;
f) Avoid gifts and other economic benefits;
g) Avoid preferential treatment to any person;
h) Use public property for public benefit;
i) Keep information secretly;

Legislations: under The Public Service Act No.8 of 2002 and its Public Service
Regulations, 2003 authorized establishment of Code of Good Conduct and Practice
which specify the standard of integrity and conduct or ethics to be observed by public
officials.

Codes of Professional Conduct.: there are various professional codes to be followed

by respective profession. For example Code of Professional Teachers, Doctors
&Nurses, Phamasist, Engineers, and alike.
2. External enforcement
Ombdusman: The Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRGG)
under Article 129 of the Constitution of United Republic Of Tanzania, 1977 as
amended which combines the features of an Ombudsman institution with those of a
National Human Rights Institution was inaugurated in March 2002, headed by a
Judge of Court Appeal, Hon. Manento J, charged with the duty to promote human
rights through civic education and to investigate human rights violations.

Political enforcement: These control public leaders and public service at large
through pressure from voters & opposition parties. For example of EPA and
Richmond much pressure raised from political leaders to enforce public leaders to
take action.

The media & public scrutiny: Played part to control the behaviour of Public
Leaders by interfering or questioning over actions of the government for the public
interest. For example, Media after raising the scandal of violating human rights in anti
poaching campaign, carried on October, 2013 results the Parliament to discuss on it
and formulate a probe committee under chairperson of Hon. James Lembeli to
conduct an inquiry and its report were submitted before the Parliament which resulted
to resignation and termination of four Ministers. The media which reported the
scandal were IPP Media, Newspapers like the Guardian, Daily News, Citizens and
social networks like jamii forums, facebook.

Non-Governmental Organizations, Civil Society Organizations and Community

Based Organizations: They play a big role in the society to enforce public leaders to
adhere rules and regulations. For example, Tanzania Media Women Association
(TAMWA)
 International Organisations/multilaterals: e.g. The UN & its organisations,
Transparency International, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch etc.

State and Parliamentary institutions: These were established by the Government in

order to control the execution of public leaders in relation to good utilization monetary
resources likely the Controller and Auditor General’s Office which is under the Ludovic
Utoh, Parliamentary Accounting Committee which is under the Chairperson, Hon. Zitto
Zuberi Kabwe (MP) and Prevention Combating of Corruption Bureau which is Director
Edward Hosea.

SERVICE CHARTERS

Service charter is the expression of an understanding between the citizen and the public service
provider about the quantity and quality of services citizens receive in exchange for their taxes. It
is essentially about the rights of the public and the obligations of the public servants as well as
expectations from the citizens As public services are funded by citizens, either directly or
indirectly through taxes, they have the right to expect a particular quality of service that is
responsive to their needs and is provided efficiently at a reasonable cost. The Citizen’s Charter is
a written, voluntary declaration by service providers about service standards, choice,
accessibility, non-discrimination, transparency and accountability. It should be in accordance
with the expectations of citizens. Therefore, it is a useful way of defining to customers the nature
of service provision and explicit standards of service. Moreover, service charter can be expressed
as a brief public document that provides essential information that citizen and stakeholders need
to know about the services or functions of a public agency/department of the government and the
manner in which they can assess services efficiently. The underlying principle is that when
people are empowered with such information they will be able to hold the State and its agencies
accountable. It covers key information about an agency’s service delivery approach and the
relationship the client will have with the agency, including:
• what the agency does;
• how to contact and communicate with the agency;
• the standard of service clients can expect;
• clients’ basic rights and responsibilities; and
• how to provide feedback or make a complaint

THE PURPOSES OF THE SERVICE CHARTERS

 The purpose of the service charters is to continually improve the quality of public
services for the people and other consumers of public services in Tanzania

 The Citizen’s Charter sees public services through the eyes of those who use them.

 The Citizen’s Charter is meant to raise quality, secure better value and extend
accountability.

 Thus, the basic thrust of Citizens’ Charter is to bring the citizen to the fore and see public
services from service users’ angle.

THE RATIONALE OF SERVICE CHARTER

The rationale for the Charters is to help change the mindset of the public official from someone
with power over the public to someone with care of duty in spending the public money collected
through taxes and in providing them with necessary services.

A further rationale of Citizens’ Charter emanates from the necessity of ensuring accountability of
the providers of public services to the service users. Its justification is based on the following
factors;

 On the recognition of the fact that all public services are paid for by the citizens, either
directly or indirectly. Therefore, they are entitled to quality and standard services.

 The citizens must be able to secure better value for their money.
  Make services more responsive and the service providers more accountable to the service
users.

IMPORTANCE OF CITIZENS’ SERVICE DELIVERY CHARTERS

 Empowers citizens to hold institutions and individual officers accountable for quality,
timely and responsive services- value addition to taxes
 Reduces corruption
 Changes culture and attitude at work place by focusing efforts to customer
satisfaction
 Ensures public officers are conscious about quality of services offered
 Enables systems to continuously re-engineer service processes

THE COMPONETS OF CHARTER

There are the seven main components that any service charter must contain ;

 Vision and Mission Statement;

 Details of Business transacted by the Organization
 Details of clients;
 Details of services provided to each client group;
 Details of grievance redress mechanism and how to access it; and
 Expectations from the clients.

Other constitutes of service charter includes the following;

Basic information about the public entity. In its Citizens’ Charter, the organization must state
clearly what subjects it deals with and service areas it broadly covers. This helps the citizen to
decide what type of services they can expect form a particular service provider. On the other
hand, a Charter must be realistic to incorporate commitments, which are achievable.

Expectations from the Users or Clients. The services in the charter should be the most
frequently sought or demanded. On the other hand, there are certain obligations on the part of the
service users, which help in providing better services. Expectations of the service users must be
genuine and according to the list of services enunciated in the Charter.

Citizens’ Rights and Responsibilities. A charter must clearly define what are the rights and
responsibilities of the citizens concerning a particular service. The citizens or service users are
also responsible to furnish information, which are essential for delivery of public services,

Agreed and Published Standards for Service Delivery. The Citizens’ Charter must set explicit
standards of service so that the users are aware of the quality or standard of service they can
reasonably expect from each service. It must contain provisions for effective monitoring and
publication of actual performance against the set standards. Service standards must conform to
the following five essential requirements thus Time bound Relevant, Accurate, Measurable,
Specific.

Openness and Information. The objectives of Citizens’ Charter will be fulfilled only if the
organization reaches out to all of its service users. The service users must be provided with
comprehensive information at the right time and at the right place. Full and accurate information
published in a simple language must be readily available to the stakeholders. For example, the
public service provider should provide the Regular publication of handouts, posters, newsletters,
updated information on website and information through popular modes of communication can
be used to reach out to the target user groups. The organization must be open to queries and tell
the citizens about the goals as well as the means it would like to adopt to achieve those goals.

Courtesy and Helpfulness. The organization should imbibe a culture of providing courteous
and helpful services to the service users and the charter must imbed it. Nevertheless, the
organization must form part of behavior of the public service providers. The public service
providers must be helpful and courteous towards the citizens while providing services. Courtesy
and helpfulness must be guided by the fact that it the service users or the citizens for which the
Organization and the service providers exist and not the vise versa.

Value for Public Money. It is yet another important component of Citizens’ Charter. It implies
efficiency and economy in delivering public service within the limit of the available resources.
The users must get satisfaction in terms of service standard and value for their money

Complaints handling and Grievance Redress. There has to be published and easy to use
complaint mechanism available to the service users at a nearest possible point. A service user
must not run from pillar to post to lodge a complaint or for redress of his grievances. There must
be reasonable time limits set for each stage of the complaint processing and its outcome. Detailed
information about a complaint should include its type and nature, complainant's name, location
and date, responsible officer, and referrals. Genuine complaints must be seen as a means of
getting feedback, which can be used to improve services in several ways ;It will reduce the
causes of complaint in future, It will help the service provider to understand clearly when and
where it is failing, The information generated by complaints will assist the service provider to
put matters right. A trend analysis of complaints will help the organization to resolve systemic
and recurring problems.

Accessibility and Accountability Officials. The public servants are accountable for providing
better and quality services to citizen. Moreover are accountable for handling of clients
complaints, simply user are entitled with better services as they pay for them. Therefore officers
are must be available in their offices to receive complaints and provide services all the time that
are specified in the service charter.

Responsiveness and Commitment. Highly motivated and trained frontline staff should be given
the responsibility to deal with users’ grievances. Commitment for quick and appropriate redress
of grievances is required at each level of the Organization for the purpose; such as the data
acquired can be then analyzed to ascertain whether the Organization is able to meet its published
standards. This would require measurable targets to be set for objective assessment of
performance, which must be reviewed on a regular basis.

However, the Citizen’s Charter should not simply be a document of assurances or a formula that
imposes a uniform pattern on every service. It is meant to be a tool kit of initiatives and ideas to
raise the level of standards of service delivery and increased public participation, in the most
appropriate way. The Charter should be an effective tool to ensure transparency and
accountability and should ensure good governance if implemented successfully by the
government departments.

CORRUPTION IN PUBLIC SERVICE

Corruption is derived from the Latin verb rumpere, to break. According to this approach,
corruption is where the law is clearly broken. Corruption is essentially the use of public power
for private gain. The first obvious site for such corruption is the public sector

The Government of Tanzania has been battling against corruption since the early days of
independence, and the efforts have been re-doubled in the last seven years with the adoption of a
new and comprehensive anti-corruption strategy.

Corruption in the public sector hampers the efficiency of public services, undermines confidence
in public institutions and increases the cost of public transactions. Integrity is essential for
building strong institutions resistant to corruption. If, metaphorically speaking, corruption is a
disease, the response to corruption is its cure and integrity in the civil services its prevention. A
particularly important aspect of prevention policy is the endorsement of high integrity standards,
such as impartiality, fairness, honesty, dedication to duty, loyalty and truthfulness, by civil
servants.

There are many types of corruption such as;

Systemic corruption
As opposed to exploiting occasional opportunities, endemic or systemic corruption is when
corruption is an integrated and essential aspect of the economic, social and political system,
when it is embedded in a wider situation that helps sustain it. Systemic corruption is not a special
category of corrupt practice, but rather a situation in which the major institutions and processes
of the state are routinely dominated and used by corrupt individuals and groups, and in which
most people have no alternatives to dealing with corrupt officials. Examples might include
contemporary Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon and many others.

Sporadic (individual) corruption

Sporadic corruption is the opposite of systematic corruption. Sporadic corruption occurs
irregularly and therefore it does not threaten the mechanisms of control nor the economy as such.
It is not crippling, but it can seriously undermine morale and sap the economy of resources.

Political corruption
Political corruption is any transaction between private and public sector actors through which
collective goods are illegitimately converted into private-regarding payoffs. Political corruption
is often used synonymously with “grand” or high level corruption, distinguished from
bureaucratic or petty corruption because it involves political decision-makers. Political or grand
corruption takes place at the high levels of the political system, when politicians and state agents
entitled to make and enforce the laws in the name of the people, are using this authority to
sustain their power, status and wealth. Political corruption not only leads to the misallocation of
resources, but it also perverts the manner in which decisions are made. Political corruption is
when the laws and regulations are abused by the rulers, side-stepped, ignored, or even tailored to
fit their interests. It is when the legal bases, against which corrupt practices are usually evaluated
and judged, are weak and furthermore subject to downright encroachment by the rulers.

Grand corruption
High level or “grand” corruption takes place at the policy formulation end of politics. It refers
not so much to the amount of money involved as to the level in which it takes place: grand
corruption is at the top levels of the public sphere, where policies and rules are formulated in the
first place. Usually (but not always) synonymous to political corruption.

Petty corruption
Small scale, bureaucratic or petty corruption is the everyday corruption that takes place at the
implementation end of politics, where the public officials meet the public. Petty corruption is
bribery in connection with the implementation of existing laws, rules and regulations, and thus
different from “grand” or political corruption. Petty corruption refers to the modest sums of
money usually involved, and has also been called “low level” and “street level” to name the kind
of corruption that people can experience more or less daily, in their encounter with public
administration and services like hospitals, schools, local licensing authorities, police, taxing
authorities and so on.

Both grand and petty corruption are serious problems in Tanzania yet various
comprehensive laws are in place to prevent corruption. It is largely due to a weak internal control
and low or non-compliance with anti-corruption regulations within different government
agencies. For instance, public procurement, taxation, and customs service are areas that are prone
to corruption. Foreign companies have identified that corruption within those sectors poses
potential obstacles for doing business in Tanzania as bribery is often demanded

Causes of corruption

The causes of corruption are varied and would have to be understood in specific contexts.
Corruption is closely, but not solely linked to officials' discretion over rents and the degree of
accountability in executing such discretion.

Ambiguous laws and regulation

A lack of clear rules governing the public sector and its procedures creates loopholes for persons
or firms to receive a government benefit to which they might not be entitled. In South Africa the
Corruption Act 140 of 1992 and the Prevention of corruption and Related Practices Act 12 of
2004 are vaguely formulated and this give people the leeway to avoid prosecution.

Poor enforcement of property rights and the rule of law

Weak enforcement of law and order in relation to property businesses encourage corruption.
Corruption is also more likely to take place when bureaucratic red tape is excessive.

The overall culture of governance also plays an important role in corruption

If political leaders and top bureaucrats set an example of self-enrichment or ambiguity over
public ethics, lower level officials and members of the public might follow suit. Hence, bribery
and corruption may become the norm, even in the face of formal rules intended to support clean
governance. Because of government's major role in most developing economies, opportunities
for corruption are often more numerous.

Consequences of corruption

 Corruption undermines economic development

 Corruption undermines political stability and government legitimacy

 Corruption undermines the fabric itself

 Corruption jeopardizes the allocation of resources to sectors crucial for development

 Corruption encourages and perpetuates other illegal opportunities

controls and non-compliance with laws and regulations, particularly in the area of public
procurement.

 Corruption persists in government procurement, privatisation, taxation and customs

clearance.
 Petty corruption in dealings with traffic, customs and immigration officers has been
identified by foreign companies as an obstacle to investment.

 The government's commitment to strengthening integrity has been seriously questioned

given the extent of corruption within the country and corruption cases involving ministers
and leading members of political parties.