The Tanzanian Presidential Commission on Corruption, formed by President Benjamin Mkapa after coming to office in November 1995, requested a Service Delivery Survey (SDS) in 1996 to investigate corruption in four key government services: police, judiciary, revenue and land. Forty representative communities in ten districts throughout Tanzania were chosen by a combination of stratification and purposeful sampling. A total of 4,561 households were interviewed.

 

Among the households, seven percent had contact with the police in the previous year, five percent the judiciary, four percent revenue services and one percent land services. From the household questionnaire, reported payment to service workers, when there was not supposed to be any, was indeed common but not universal (35% police, 32% judiciary, 39% revenue and 25% lands). The causes of corruption were cited as lack of action by the government, low salaries of service workers and poor organization of services. Suggestion from households for solving the problems of corruption included: prosecution of corrupt people (31%); increasing salaries (13%); disciplining or dismissing corrupt workers (12%); better information about services (8%); and reporting by citizens of corruption (6%).

 

Another questionnaire was administered to 153 service workers. They gave low salaries and poor conditions of service as reasons for corruption. Improved reporting in the media, with protection for reporters, was suggested, together with education of the public about what their rights were in relation to the judiciary and other services.