418. Since the Warioba Report in 1996, Government developed and introduced the Enhanced National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plans (NACSAP), in the form of (NACSAP) I (1999-2005) and NACSAP II (2008-12), both of which set out action plans for national ministries, departments and agencies. The emphasis of NACSAP II was more on carrying the anti-corruption war to the local governments, civil society organisations, and the private sector.Thus, the “the strategic goals” of NACSAP II, whose “strategic thrusts” were enumerated earlier on under Objective Five of this Report, were to: (i) combat corruption in a more scientific way and by addressing its root causes; (ii) strengthen anticorruption mechanisms at all the MDAs; (iii) introduce systems of integrity, accountability, and transparency in Local Government Administration (LGAs); (iv) mainstream and empower the private sector in anti-corruption activities; (v) mainstream and empower CSOs and other non-state actors in anti-corruption processes; (vi) raise public awareness about anti-corruption activities; (vii) build synergy between NACSAP, legislative and judicial integrity programmes; and (viii) enhance the capacity of PCCB, GGCU, and the Director of Public Prosecutions to deal with corruption, and to manage and implement NACSAP. 419. The CRM found that, as part of the fight against corruption, Tanzania has signed and ratified the following African regional and international anti-corruption protocols: (i) the UN Convention against Corruption; (ii) the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption; and (iii) the SADC Protocol against Corruption. 420. Commendably, the CRM confirmed that several cases of corruption and the misuse of public funds have been reported and allegedly corrupt officials dismissed, prosecuted and convicted. The Richmond Scandal is a case in point. This grew out of the non-executed contract between the Richmond Development Company of Texas (USA) and the Government of Tanzania for the provision of 100 MV to the national grid for US$179 million. (http://www. tzaffairs.org/2008/05/report-on-richmond-scandal) 421. This development, which is probably due to recent policy initiatives, has also been facilitated by the establishment in 2009 of the Tanzania Corruption Tracker System for a one-year pilot phase, supported with a grant from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Finnish Embassy.73Box 3.2 is the abstract from a blog on the tracker system. Box 3.2: Blogger’s Perception of the Role of the Tracker System in the Fight Against Corruption in Tanzania Tanzania’s fight against corruption has taken a new turn with the arrests of former government officials, ministers and high profile individuals from early November, 2008. Last week for instance, retired Treasury permanent secretary Gray Mgonja was taken to court on allegations of abuse of office and occasioning loss of 11.7b/-. Mr Mgonja is accused of abusing his official authority by arbitrarily ignoring the recommendations made by the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) not to grant tax exemption to M/S Alex Stewart (Assayers) Government Business Corporation company in 2003. The appearance at the Kisutu court of Mra Mgonja, of the former Minister for Finance Basil Pesambili Mramba and of the former Minister for Energy and Minerals, Daniel Ndhira Yona late last month has increased the stakes in the fight against corruption in Tanzania. The former ministers were brought to court last month over the same scandal. In November [2008] in another case 20 suspects including business tycoons and Central Bank senior officials were brought to court on charges of conspiracy, forgery, theft and obtaining credit under false pretence through the Bank of Tanzania (BoT)’s External Payment Arrears (EPA) account. The EPA case involves the theft of billions of shillings from the Bank of Tanzania’s External Payments Arrears account. For the best part of 2008 Tanzanians have been waiting to see how President Jakaya Kikwete handles corruption scandals dogging his government. Since the recent arrests, President Kikwete has received praises, even though some are sceptical and are calling for more heads to roll over numerous high profile corruption allegations. Source: http://corruptiontracker.or.tz 73 The aim of the Corruption Tracker System is to track publicly available information on presumed or confirmed cases of corruption in order to increase government’s accountability and improve its response to corruption, and to enhance citizen engagement with, and support of the anti-corruption fight. 95