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Integrity Scorecard

2007 Assessment

Tanzania: Integrity Indicators Scorecard

Tanzania: Integrity Scorecard Report > Sub-Category: Law Enforcement
Indicators		Score
80	Is the law enforcement agency (i.e. the police) effective?	42
81	Can law enforcement officials be held accountable for their actions?	50

Indicator and sub-Indicator Details

Is the law enforcement agency (i.e. the police) effective?

80a: In practice, appointments to the law enforcement agency (or agencies) are made according to professional criteria.

Score:

100

Comments: Appointments may sometimes be based on willingness to pay "tribute" to superiors. For example, traffic police have to pay a proportion of their bribes to their bosses.

References: Interview with Brian Cooksey

80b: In practice, the law enforcement agency (or agencies) has a budget sufficient to carry out its mandate.

Score:

100

$Scoring Criteria :: 100 Score Criteria: The agency (or agencies) has a budget sufficient to fulfill its basic mandate. <p>50 Score Criteria: The agency (or agencies) has limited budget, generally considered somewhat insufficient to fulfill its basic mandate. <p>0 Score Criteria: The agency (or agencies) has no budget or an obviously insufficient budget that hinders the agency\'s ability to fulfill its mandate.$

Comments: Money is not the main problem, although it is beyond doubt that the policy force could do with more resources.

References: Interviews with government officials and academics

Peer Review Comments: The problem of underfunding of, for instance, the police force is related to poor budgeting priorities. Whereas the army receives significant funding for projects that have little impact on the majority of the poor population, the average police worker is poorly paid, lacks decent housing, and even may not have the necessary vehicles for operations.

80c: In practice, the law enforcement agency is protected from political interference.

Score:

100

Comments: Police are often used to control politicall opposition and to prosecute or intimidate individuals who publicly question or challenge people in authority. This is particularly common at the local government level.

References: Legal and Human Rights Centre Tanzania Human Rights Report 2004 Legal and Human Rights Centre

Haki Elimu Dar es Salaam 2005

Interviews with academics and civil society organization activists

Media reports

Peer Review Comments: In the case of Tanzania, the interference is much more serious because the regional and district commissioners who chair the respective security committees are officially appointees and members of the ruling party, CCM.

Can law enforcement officials be held accountable for their actions?

81a: In law, there is an independent mechanism for citizens to complain about police action.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: The Criminal Procedure Act, Chapter 20

81b: In practice, the independent law enforcement complaint reporting mechanism responds to citizen's complaints within a reasonable time period.

Score:

100

Comments:

References: Interview with Brian Cooksey

81c: In law, there is an agency/entity to investigate and prosecute corruption committed by law enforcement officials.

Score:

YES

Comments: Cases can be reported to PCCB, which can investigate but not independenttly prosecute, or to the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance, which can investigate and try but whose judgments have no legal force.

References: There is no such law.

81d: In practice, when necessary, the agency/entity independently initiates investigations into allegations of corruption by law enforcement officials.

Score:

100

Comments: Both PCCB and the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRGG) investigate, but they cannot legally prosecute (PCCB) or their judgments are not legally binding (CHRGG). Also, they act on only a small fraction of the cases that are reported.

References: Interviews with academics and civil society organization activists

Researcher's own observations

Peer Review Comments: Because there is no agency of that nature, it would be improper to judge.

81e: In law, law enforcement officials are not immune from criminal proceedings.

Score:

YES

Comments: Only the president of the United Republic of Tanzania is immune from criminal proceedings, unless he is impeached. All other citizens, including law enforcement officers, are liable for prosecution.

References: The laws of Tanzania

81f: In practice, law enforcement officials are not immune from criminal proceedings.

Score:

100

Comments: It does happen that senior police officers are tried, but very rarely do these trials end in convictions. More often are junior officers tried and convicted, but even this is not very common.

References: Interviews with academics and civil society organization activists

Media reports