The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Polycarp Machira
11 August 2008
The judiciary will re-introduce 'supervisor magistrates' to strengthen the judicial ethics system aimed at restoring public confidence in the state organ which has been tainted with corruption allegations.
Chief Justice Augustino Ramadhan said this in Dar es Salaam yesterday when opening a six-day training for magistrates.
He said, among other duties and roles, the supervisor magistrate would visit the courts and get reports of all cases heard plus their judgements.
He said the position that existed before it was scraped off sometime back should be re-established to help solve corruption allegations within the judiciary.
"We are taking measures to restore the magistrate supervisor as a way of curbing some corruption acts in the judicial system," said the CJ.
He said from his experience there were cases that took too long to be heard without any reason, a clear sign of corruption.Chief Justice Ramadhani said through his weekly programme of listening to various judicial problems from members of the public he had realized that some cases were always delayed for flimsy reasons.
He said he established a system whereby his assistants listen to complaints raised by the public, while the most serious ones were referred to him.
"I have to confess that many people have genuine problems that need intervention from higher authorities like my office. Some cases are delayed for up to eight years without proper reasons," he noted. He said he has handled a few cases in which respective judicial officers were involved in corruption.
He urged the magistrates to refrain from corrupt practices since any small element of the vice tarnished the image of the whole system.
At least 40 magistrates from the mainland's 21 regions are attending the special training on anti-corruption, money laundering and financial crimes for magistrates.
The CJ added that lack of supervisory authority had created room for corruption in the judiciary.
Speaking at the same event, the USAID country director, Ms Pamela White, said judges were the last station on the criminal justice train where the whole effort to prosecute a criminal faces the moment of truth-acquittal or conviction.
She said it was no good to have excellent anti-corruption laws in books, excellent investigations and excellent prosecution if the train tracks finally end up with corrupt magistrates.
"The unpleasant news is that currently public perceptions of the Judiciary are suffering.
A recent survey of 7000 Tanzanians by the Research on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA) showed that 70 per cent of the people believe corruption is common, and that police and the legal system are the most corrupt public services in the country." she said.
Under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) threshold program, an $11 million (about Sh12.65 billion) anti-corruption effort, USAID has helped the government take important steps in improving the rule of law.
The USAID boss said through the knowledge gained from the course, the judges will be able to prepare a master curriculum so that they can bring ethics training to every district magistrate.
She said the organization has helped the country's regulator carry out 40 audits of procurement practices of entities in the Government.
It has also trained more than 250 investigators from the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB).
It was confident that the fruits of that effort would be seen in the next few months, as PCCB finalizes investigations of several grand corruption cases, she further said.
Presenting a paper on the fight against corruption in the country, the PCCB director general, Mr Edward Hosea, said corruption and money laundering were big global problems.
He said the country has to grapple with the new techniques and increase capacities to curb them.
Mr Hosea said through the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), established by an Act of Parliament in 2006, the Government would strengthen the weak financial institutions and legal framework. These continue to be a major target for money launders.
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