Chande calls for stamping out conflict of interest in public service

Dodoma. Retired Chief Justice (CJ) Mohamed Chande Othman has said personal interests and dealings under the table must be stamped out because they are the enemy of public interests.

Chande also said conflict of interest was dangerous and must be identified, controlled and managed because it bore a great potential of defaming Tanzania.

He made the comments on December 6,2018 in Dodoma Region when opening a symposium to mark the National Ethics and Human Rights day.

He said for conflict of interest to grow there must be four factors namely: basic interests or public interests, under the table interests or personal interests, public responsibility and conflicts.

The retired CJ said conflicts of interest were like a time bomb that needed to be discussed, explaining that it was a crosscutting issue that was not political.

“It is not a surprising thing to admit that conflict of interest exists in public and private sectors. We must understand that we live with temptations and if we do not take any step to counter them, we will continue living with them,” he says.

For his part, the commissioner for ethics, retired judge Harold Nsekela, said Tanzania’s aim of celebrating the Ethics and Human Rights Day was to nurture a generation of righteous people for tomorrow’s nation.

Judge Nsekela explained that integrity, openness and good governance were crucial for Tanzania.

For his part, the deputy minister of State in the President’s Office - Public Service Management and Good Governance -Dr Mary Mwanjelwa said the current nation was bedeviled by moral decay from the family level, a vice which, she added, needed to be addressed and spoken against by everybody to build a nation of righteous people.

This year’s theme was“controlling conflict of interest is a vital pillar for building good governance.”