Zitto urges Magufuli to publicly declare wealth

 The leader of the opposition ACT Maendeleo party, Zitto Kabwe (pictured), has called on President John Magufuli to publicly disclose the details of his personal income, assets and liabilities as part of measures to promote accountability and transparency among public officials in the country.

 

“A robust system of public leadership ethics ... becomes meaningful if public leaders publicly declare their wealth,” Zitto said in a statement yesterday.

 

“This allows members of the public to scrutinise the assets of their leaders. When you decide to become a public leader, your life becomes an open book,” he added.

 

The Kigoma Urban legislator, a former chairman of the parliamentary public accounts committee (PAC), also urged the president to instruct all ministers in his cabinet to publicly declare their assets and liabilities.

 

Zitto last year became the first ever public leader to publish his wealth declaration forms online.

 

The longstanding debate over public leadership ethics has been refreshed in recent days after President Magufuli threatened to sack government ministers who failed to declare their personal wealth at the Ethics Secretariat or refused to sign a leadership integrity pledge. This followed revelations that at least three senior ministers and one junior minister in the president’s cabinet had yet to meet these conditions by the set deadline of December 31 last year.

 

National laws on leadership ethics currently require public leaders to submit to the secretariat a written declaration of all their assets and liabilities at the end of each year, with applicable updates on an annual basis. The law grants members of the public the right to examine the declaration forms once submitted, but prohibits the publication or dissemination of the information contained therein.

 

It says the Ethics Secretariat ‘may’ take action against public leaders who either doesn’t fill the form or makes false declarations.

 

 This in effect gives the secretariat discretionary powers on whether to punish defaulters or not. But according to the Ethics Secretariat commissioner, Judge Salome Kaganda, the office has for the past several years failed to perform its duty of verifying the assets and liabilities declared by public leaders, due to a lack of sufficient funds to carry out the exercise.

 

Former prime minister Mizengo Pinda publicly declared his assets at a press conference during the fourth phase government of retired president Jakaya Kikwete. But Pinda drew criticism after failing to do the same at the time of his stated retirement from politics last year. Members of the public were therefore denied the opportunity to scrutinize his wealth at the time of his leaving office.

 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN