`Don`t use confidentiality to silence MPs`
2008-07-02 10:25:58
By Lydia Shekighenda
Attempts to stop MPs from presenting documents related to dubious and corrupt deals under the guise of confidentiality amount to abuse of power which violate the country`s laws. In a cross-section interview, Dr. Sengondo Mvungi, lecturer with the University of Dar es Salaam (Faculty of Law), said government documents linking senior public officials with corruption and embezzlement of state resources should be unveiled for public interest.
The don criticised the current laws that prohibited the exposure of state documents containing such information as outdated.
``Elements of secrecy as provided in the law largely contribute to the absence of transparency and openness in the operations of the government. Such statutes should be reviewed,`` he said. Mvungi was commenting on recent statements made by the Minister of State in the Prime Minister�s Office (Parliament Affairs), Philip Marmo in the National Assembly that it was a criminal offence for a person to possess confidential government documents. Marmo questioned how the Karatu legislator, Dr. Wilbrod Slaa (Chadema), had obtained confidential government documents and used them as evidence to implicate government officials in corruption scandals during House debates.
However, Mvungi said there must be some limitations and specifications on prohibiting the possession of top secret papers. He called on the government to avoid generalisations. ``A government document may be treated as secret if and only if its disclosure may threaten security and peace of the country, but documents on corrupt transactions cannot be described as such,`` he said.
Mvungi, who is also a senior official with the opposition NCCR-Mageuzi, said legislators had legal rights and immunities that allowed them to access the documents for official use. ``MPs have the right to claim such documents they fail to access them because of excessive bureaucracy in the government circles. We need strong and aggressive legislators to challenge these systems,`` he said. Professor Mwesiga Baregu, also of the University of Dar es Salaam, decried the said confidentiality as being contrary to principles of good governance.
``Talking of good governance implies removing unnecessary secrecy in the daily operations of the government. Confidential documents related to massive corruption should be assessed to weigh their importance in the context of public interest,`` he said. The government, he said, should not blindly treat documents as confidential but go beyond that and evaluate significance of issues being raised from the documents. Prof Baregu said confidentiality was an outdated system of running the government, except on issues which might endanger the security and peace of the country.
``Corruption is not only about people stealing money. It also involves the whole system of handling government issues. A good example is the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), which cleansed the dubious Richmond contract, but later on, the Mwakyembe Select Committee unveiled corruption motives in the tender awarding process,`` he clarified.
Clement Mashamba, a lawyer and Executive Director of National Organisation for Legal Assistance (NOLA), described the attempts to silence legislators as abuse of law and an infringement of freedom of expression. ``Yes. It is criminal offence to possess certain confidential government documents, but these documents are usually classified as confidential for the sake of public interest,`` said Mashamba.
He said discretionary powers of the relevant ministers were grossly abused so as to protect interests of a few corrupt people within the state system at the expense of millions of Tanzanians. ``A report on Bank of Tanzania board of directors meeting cannot be classified as confidential because BoT is a public institution,`` he said. Another lawyer who opted for anonymity, said the possession of the ``so-called confidential government documents`` must be categorically mentioned as a criminal offence; otherwise a mere declaration by the minister that certain documents are confidential was irrelevant