Corruption in Tanzania: The Case for Circumstantial Evidence By ...

Good governance, according to Mwenda, ‘refers simply to a collection of legal concepts that have been known to several lawyers time immemorial. There is nothing jurisprudentially new about the term good governance, although this term has attracted much intellectual curiosity and excitement’.²⁵

Apart from the superficial treatment of the term good governance by many scholars and multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, and UNDP—as Mwenda postulated—a consensus on the definition of the concept of good governance is yet to be found.

Nonetheless, fighting corruption is about committed political culture that does not render lip service to anticorruption and good governance initiatives, but ensures that governance is improved and corruption is dealt with accordingly. Bad governance, however, is a failure of public institutions to supply society with a framework for a competitive process and sustainable development. Good governance is essential for developing an environment that promotes economic growth and minimises poverty. Sustainable development requires sound institutions as well as synergy between the economic and political spheres. For circumstantial evidence to be effective in the dispensation of justice against corruption, all legal institutions—including the judiciary, the police, the office of the DPP and the attorney general, the legal practitioners, and the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB)—must be strengthened in terms of capacities, training, and commitment to uproot corruption in society. Most importantly, the understanding of the utility of circumstantial evidence in corruption cases as the common-law tradition has not been able to effectively deal with the new trends of corruption and its predicates.

Research findings have demonstrated that corruption leads to lower capital inflows and lower productivity. Corruption may deter foreign investors because it is often associated with a lack of secure property rights as well as bureaucratic red tape and mismanagement.²⁶ The deleterious effects of corruption are devastating because of its pervasive, viral nature, and it is corrosive to the political and socioeconomic existence of our nation.²⁷