[ 2016-01-05 ]

Tanzanian President forces officials to sign public integrity pledge
Tanzanian President John Magufuli has forced new
government officials to publicly sign a pledge of
integrity before entering office, U.S. broadcaster
Voice of America(VOA) reported.

Since his election in October, Magufuli has
undertaken various initiatives aimed at rooting
out corruption and reducing bureaucracy within
government. The president fired dozens of port
officials in December after more than 2,400
containers were found to have disappeared without
taxes being paid on them.

Magufuli also ordered the arrest of the head of
Tanzania’s Revenue Authority in connection with
corruption and has banned foreign travel for all
government officials except himself, his vice
president and the prime minister.

Government spokesman Assah Mwambene said the
newly-appointed permanent secretaries were made to
sign the document in the presence of Magufuli, who
leads the rulling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party,
at the State House in Dar es Salaam, VOA reported
on Sunday. During the ceremony, Magufuli warned
the officials that if any of the officials felt
unable to abide by the document’s contents,
“he should dismiss himself and vacate the State
House premises right now.”

Prior to Magufuli’s intervention, Tanzanian
government officials signed an integrity document
which was then submitted to an ethics commission.
Under the president’s orders, however, the
document has been “beefed up” to include “a
very serious corruption element” as well as
other measures to ensure that government officials
work on behalf of the population, according to
Mwambene.

Nicknamed the bulldozer” for his proficiency in
expanding the country’s road networks, Magufuli
previously served as Tanzania’s works minister.
His anti-corruption and cost-cutting initiatives
spawned a Twitter hashtag, #WhatWouldMagufuliDo,
which trended in Tanzania and East Africa in
December.

Source - Europe.newsweek

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