According to the African Union, in excess of $140 billion is stolen from the African continent every year by it's leaders. This final essay will look in detail at corruption; understanding the definition, the causes and the severe consequences of this destructive practice.
What is corruption?
"Corruption, while being tied particularly to the act of bribery, is a general term covering the misuse of authority as a result of considerations of personal gain, which need not be monetary." David Bayley (1966: 720)
"Corruption is the diversion of public resources to nonpublic purposes." Herbert Werlin (1973: 73)
"Corruption is the outright theft, embezzlement of funds or other appropriation of state property, nepotism and the granting of favours to personal acquaintances, and the abuse of public authority and position to exact payments and privileges."(Harsch 1993: 33)
It is important to distinguish between political and bureaucratic corruption. While the latter involves efforts by civil servants to enrich themselves through illegal means, the former is used by political parties to win elections or take control of the state. Political corruption usually includes activities such as vote-rigging, registration of unqualified, dead, or non-existent voters, purchase and sale of votes, and the falsification of election results (Goodman 1990). Political corruption is not defined by the opening quotes above, nor is it the focus of this essay. Instead we will focus on bureaucratic corruption.
Corruption is measured by Transparency international who produce the ‘Corruption Perceptions Index’ which attempts to measure the level of corruption in all nations across the world. The diagram below shows the extent and severity of the problem faced by the African continent.
Corruption Perceptions Index 2010 Results, http://www.transparency.org
Why is Sub-Saharian Africa so corrupt?
Alam (1989) and Bayley (1966) see corruption in developing countries as arising from the clash or conflict between traditional values and the imported norms that accompany modernization and socio-political development.
David Apter (1963) explains that African civil servants may be obliged to share the proceeds of their public offices with their kinfolk. The African extended family places significant financial pressure on the civil servant, forcing him to engage in corrupt and nepotic practices. Bureaucrats are believed to exploit their public positions to generate benefits for themselves, their families, and their ethnic or social cleavage.
Gould and Mukendi (1989: 434) show that one potential causative factor of corruption is the "soft state" that is said to embody "a weak or diffuse sense of national interest and the absence of a commitment to public service."
Whatever the initial cause, once thoroughly embedded, corruption is almost impossible to remove. A good friend of ours has recently been approached by one of the two presidential electoral candidates for the upcoming election. He was asked to be a fundraiser for the party, focusing on his ethnic community. For a year’s work there would be no payment, just an understanding that debts would be paid should the candidate win the election. This was explained to us to mean the man’s business would be awarded overly-lucrative government contracts, and he would likely be employed somewhere within the civil service with nice salary, minimal work requirements and plenty of time of run his other affairs.
To win an election these types of promises must be made to hundreds if not thousands of people in order to run a successful campaign in the year preceding the public vote. To fail to do so would be to surrender to the opposition. As a result, whichever party ends up taking power does so with a mountain of 'favours' owed, and an agenda for corruption even before their first day in power.
Why is corruption bad?
Corruption results in significant theft from the taxpayer.
When the minister for transport (say) has funding available for a new flyover and puts the contract out for tender the offers will come back from prospective project management firms. In this non-corrupt example the bids come in from $1 billion to $1.2 billion for the job, after which the civil service team examines the small print of each offer, weighs in the reputation of each bidder, and determines the best deal for the taxpayer.
To simplify a corrupt government, the minister lets it be known the contract will require a $200 million kickback for a bidder to be successful. The bidding firms are not going to take this hit, their profit margins have been carefully calculated, so the bids come in from $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion, and the civil servants proceed to check the bids as before. However this time there is a reasonable chance that the best project manager will not be selected, but a friend or family member of the minister will take the contract instead. As a result the final cost is higher, and the quality of the work completed lower, hurting the taxpayer twice over.
On a far smaller scale the traffic police here in Ghana are forever extracting bribes from drivers. Again this is to the detriment of the state. The police do not extract bribes from drivers obeying the law, they target un-roadworthy cars, or those breaking the speed limit. Legally a fine should be paid, however a ‘dash’ of just a few cedis and the police officer forgets about the offence and sends the driver on his way. The loser is not the driver, who gets off far more lightly than he should have. The loser, again, is the state which is deprived of funds, and consequently the taxpayer.
But theft is only one part of the problem. Corruption results in the collapse of otherwise viable businesses which cannot afford to pay off officials. It also results in the precipitation of inefficient business which survive because they have the right officials in their pocket.
Corruption encourages governments to pursue perverse economic policies, because control and enforcement of those policies results in the enrichment of those at the top.
Corruption is a killer of initiative and trust. It drives away foreign investment and undermines the development of the rule of law.
But most callously, corruption robs African children of a better future. Every penny that goes missing today is another step backwards in this desperately impoverished part of the world.
Corruption then, is the principal reason why Sub-Saharan Africa is poor. The scale of outright theft at the top defies belief. The results, at the bottom, are all too evident for anyone to see. Through the stealing of money, the perversion of the rule of law, the distortion of market forces and the suppression of creativity, the rulers of Africa today effect a severe injustice on their people’s tomorrow.
Corruption sits within a self reinforcing negative cycle, and one from which it is exceptionally difficult to escape. Only time will tell whether these fantastically vibrant and uplifting people will throw off the shackles imposed by the dishonesty of their leaders.
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