AHEAD of the International Women’s Day on March 8, employees in public and private higher learning institutions have been told to avoid sexual corruption while in duty.
The call was made by Deputy Secretary of the Public Service Commission, Salvatory Kaize, who argued that avoiding sexual corruption would lead to eliminating sexual harrassment.
He made the statement on Wednesday in Dar es Salaam during a training for public servants.
Kaize said it was important for public servants to avoid sexual corruption while on duty to protect their jobs.
“Incidents of misconduct occur when, for example, an employee is found guilty of asking for sex in exchange with favour at learning institutions.
When a man is fired, his wife and children are affected,” he said.
“So female staff help us identify those who harass students sexually, female employees in the public and private sectors you have to protect your children,” Mr Kaiza appealed.
He said there were many complaints from colleges about sexual corruption.
“We have no sympathy for that and we give severe punishment to those found guilty because it’s not to ask for sex in change with marks,” he stressed.
Kaize noted that discipline at work is important as it makes a person work effectively.
He called on social welfare departments to allocate sufficient budget to provide training that will build the capacity among staff.
“With regard to the hearing of staff appeals we are not late but there are challenges on the part of the committees, we will work on it,” he added.
For his part, the Acting Principal of the Institute of Social Welfare, Dr Eventius Mugyabuso, said they have partnered with the Tanzania Higher Education Institutions (THTU) trade union to train staff.
“Towards World Women’s Day we are focusing more on fighting misconducts because when these problems occur most of the victims are women,” he explained.
Acting Coordinator of the THTU Women’s Committee, Roseyne Mathew, said many staff do not have a clear understanding of what was right and wrong when at work so when it comes to sexual abuse, so training was essential.