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In Tanzania, traditionally corruption is defined as the misuse of public office for private gain (Government of Tanzania, 2008). Today, corruption includes fraud, waste, abuse, bribery, gratuity, official misconduct, conflict of interest, embezzlement, larceny, forgery, and racketeering, just to mention the most common. Further, two types of cor- ruption are highlighted: first, petty corruption is practiced by low-ranking civil servants and involves small sums of money; normally, it takes the form of delaying tactics in order to compel the service receiver to provide a bribe for the process to be speeded up. Second, grand corruption is practiced by politicians and high-ranking public offi- cials, and it involves large sums of money; it takes the form of circumventing laws and, in some cases, either a complete change to existing laws or the unacceptable interpretation of these laws in order to create an environment conducive to corruption.
This article extends beyond well-known corrupt practices. Indeed, corruption poses a huge barrier to the development of Tanzania. For instance, the cumulative amount of money lost through corrupt and dubious contracts in two recent major corruption scan- dals in Tanzania could have done wonders for the country and could have dramatically changed the social and economic landscape. A cost analysis by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and the Tanzania Power Supply Company (Tanesco) calculates the monies embezzled in the so-called 'Richmond Saga' (to be discussed in the section on grand corruption) at a whopping Tsh697bn - at the 2007 conversion rate of US$1: Tsh1255, this amount was equivalent to US$555,378,486. This money could have built 142 primary schools and could have paid the salaries of about 6800 primary school tea- chers per year. Again, this sum could have constructed 410 km of a Tanzania-Zambia Railways (Tazara) standard rail link between Mbeya and Sumbawanga, and Makam- bako and Iringa towns; and the money could also have financed the building of 581 km of tarmac road (CTS, 2009).
However, efforts by the Tanzanian government to combat corruption are not new and only recently Parliament enacted the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Act of 2007. Clearly, since the early days of independence, the government has been committed to the fight against corruption in all sectors of society (Afrobarometer, 2006). Furthermore, recently efforts have...