TANZANIA: Magistrates’ transfers, annual leave stifle hearing of graft cases - PCCB

Written by AMINA JUMA in Moshi 

TRANSFERS of district magistrates to other work stations and annual leaves have been cited as part of reasons most corruption cases in Kilimanjaro Region delay being finalized, for more than three years.

Speaking to the 'Daily News,' the Kilimanjaro Regional Bureau Chief (RBC) of Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) in Kilimanjaro Region, Mr Lawrence Swema, said transfers were an obstacle to many corruption cases that are before the courts of law.

"When a magistrate goes on leave, the case has to be deferred until the magistrate reports for work. And when he is transferred, it takes more than three months to assign another magistrate to continue with the case," he said. Mr Swema said that in the year ending June 2012, the PCCB office in Kilimanjaro Region filed 17 cases before the court, whereby, most of them concern government workers from different districts.

He said the PCCB is taking cases to court with the belief that the case will be heard on time and the judgment will be given so as to act as a deterrent to those thinking of engaging in corruption. "We would like to see these cases taking less than a year to be concluded because the aim is to stop corruption, we cannot stop it without tangible results," he said.

He said the PCCB in Kilimanjaro Region last year (2011/12), received a total of 153 corruption complaints, whereby most of them were from the municipal and district councils. Mr Swema said among those complaints, a total of 87 were from different departments in the municipal and district councils, whereby 22 complaints were from courts of law and 17 from the police force.

Source: Daily News (24/12/2012): http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/local-news/12983-magistrates-transfers-annual-leave-stifle-hearing-of-graft-cases-pccb