The law relating to the prevention and combating of corruption in Tanzania: the case study of the prevention and combating of corruption Act, 2007

The work attempts to underscore the examination of the current law relating to the prevention and combating of Corruption in Tanzania. It is due to the fact that the current corruption situation in this country is so rampant necessitating an efficient and effective legal regime to overcome. Both the library and field research in form of interviews, focused group discussions and questionnaire were conducted within Dar es Salaam to obtain data for the study. It is clearly pointed out that the Act is a progressively enacted legislation that caters for a wide range of corruption offences, sanctions and other remedial aspects. It provides for extra territorial jurisdiction, confiscation, freezing and forfeiture of the properties obtained through corruption means. The Act is one of the remedial enactments passes at opportune moments. The work points out further that the law has a number of bottlenecks that make it less effective and non efficient if the same are not addressed immediately by amending the current law. These are pertaining to the autonomy and independence of the Bureau, criteria for the appointment and security of tenure to top office-bearers, accountability of the Bureau activities, role of media and informers as well as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP’s) fiat on prosecution of the corruption cases. Finally the work proposes for legal reforms to overcome/loosen these bottlenecks and strengthening of the political will as the cornerstone issues for making the law both most efficient and efficacious.