Welcome to AfroLeaks!
AfroLeaks is a series of articles created and produced by Femi Senu, Director of Research at the Nigerian Association of Criminology Terrorism and Political Violence Studies. The series aims to provide current and contemporary sources of commentary on the African corruption conundrum. This is the first article out of a series of articles intended for this purpose.
The series endeavours to provide information concerning anti-corruption initiatives that are effective through evidence-based research and aims to analyse: the drivers of corruption; the problems corruption creates; suggestions about how to resolve corruption; and to provide up to date analyses regarding corruption scandals.
You can read more about the profile of the author by clicking here.
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What exactly are we talking about when we say ‘fight against corruption?’
By Femi Senu | @Femi_Senu | Monday 9 May 2016 | 00:00 GMT
Corruption is of major concern – a major cause and a major outcome of poverty globally. It occurs within every sphere of society, ranging from local and national governments, civil society, the judiciary, firms small, medium or large, governmental bodies and so forth.
Despite corruption affecting both poor and rich countries, corruption largely affects and hits the poorest of society. Corruption challenges democracy as well the political, economic and social development of a nation, with its effects informing against a nation’s environment, wellbeing and health to name a few.
However, it is not only the government that is guilty of corruption; it threads through the very fabric of our society, interconnected with a plethora of problems. On an international level, corruption has become pervasive – aided by globalization – and worsening the economic condition of many people.
At national level, corrupt bureaucrats ignore dynamic local community representatives and grassroots contributions to the socioeconomic development of society, while at local-level, corruption can frustrate everyday activities, making life difficult for those affected.
Understandably, corruption is hard to measure or compare. Notwithstanding, the impact of corruption on poverty, and the effects of inequalities are well observed in today’s trade agreements and policies for development. So while corruption’s impact can be noticed openly, other formal and legal types of corruption (i.e. bending the rules to aid corrupt behaviour) are not.
Contemporary citizens may believe it is meaningless to measure corruption, in that, these acts are covered by the law and committed under institutions that direct national or international communities. Yet contrarily, what requires scrutiny is how this process works. This is not to suggest that corruption creates all the problems that are wrong with our world today, but it is an enormous challenge faced by modern societies, impeding economic growth and development.
Providing an insight into some of the anti-corruption initiatives that developed over the years can help us understand how complex and frustrating the fight against corruption can be. For example, Lopez-Claros (2014) identified six strategies to fight corruption. In this article, I call these Strategies A to F for illustrative purposes, and consider the advantages and disadvantages each strategy holds.
These strategies built upon the work of Rose-Ackerman (1998). Rose-Ackerman’s work suggest two strategies that aim at increasing the benefits of being honest and the disadvantages of corrupt behaviour (dishonesty). This was seen as a sensible combination of reward and punishment as a driving force for reforms.
Positions adopted by writers such as Lopez-Claros (2014) and Rose-Ackerman (1998) often questioned whether reforms focused on helping governments reduce corruption and mitigating its effects, or whether it also purveyed as a system where the rules decided encouraged corrupt behaviour. Nonetheless, this view sounds promising if focused on reducing corruption. Let’s have a look at these strategies then!
Strategy A – Paying civil servants well
Low public sector wages may put employees under pressure to look for alternative revenues in unofficial ways. Employees are likely to turn to corruption or become influenced by it when put under pressure.
Strategy B – Transparency and openness in government spending
The things that a government manages are diverse and not limited to the following: collecting taxes, exploring capital markets to raise funds, receiving foreign aid and developing mediums to allocate resources in order to deal with a diversification of needs.
According to Lopez-Claros (2014), some states manage this in a way that is transparent and endeavour that resources address the public interest. If the system is open, it most likely reduces the grounds for abuse and prevents opportunities for corruption.
Evidence shows that states where citizens are able to monitor government activities and debate the effects of diverse public policies make a difference, particularly when press freedom and literacy rates are high (Collier, 2007). Coupled with this is the active engagement of civil society, where the culture of participation is a useful mechanism in supporting diverse strategies that aim at reducing corruption (Lopez-Claros, 2014).
Strategy C – Cutting red tape (excessive bureaucracy)
According to Rose-Ackerman (1998), ‘the most obvious approach is simply to eliminate laws and programmes that breed corruption’. Her view was that there were links between the incidence of corruption and the level of bureaucratic red tape, and that business could be performed whereby some unneeded regulations were removed and that only regulatory functions necessary to the function of the state should be safeguarded.
Notably the legislations on book today for many countries include opening up new deals for trade, registering property and joining international trading blocs. There is a notable excess of red tape to regulate these new agreements, with states not seeking to minimise bureaucracy.
Trade agreements and policies for economic developments are problematic, so while development for a nation may sound interesting, the goals can be difficult to attain when the rules for development are bent and corrupt. In some cases, the rules are bent to the extent that it excludes grassroots voices from development agreements. It is true that corruption is difficult to measure, but the impacts are visibly noticed globally.
Strategy D – Replacing regressive and distorting subsides with targeted cash transfers
An example highlighted by the authors is how government policy can distort incentives and provide opportunities for corruption. Referencing the International Monetary Fund (2003), Lopez-Claros (2014) illustrates how consumer subsides for energy products have reached $1.9 trillion in a year, equivalent to at least 2.5% of global gross domestic product or 8% of government incomes. The subsidies are then regressively shared, with more than 60% of total benefits accruing to the richest 20 percent of households, with respect to gasoline.
It has been argued that removing these subsidies may result in a significant reduction in CO2 emissions and generate other positive spillover effects. Since subsides often lead to smuggling, shortages and the emergence of ‘black markets putting aside the issue of the opportunity costs’, removing subsidies can have an influence of mitigating these issues (Lopez-Claros, 2014).
The environmental implications are also connected with artificially low prices, with subsides often placing the government at the centre of corruption-generating schemes according to Lopez-Claros (2014).
After looking at the costs of corruption and its impact, it is clear corrupt practices warrant a number of strategies to counter its efficacy in harming contemporary society. Normally and theoretically, it would present feasible for these anti-corruption strategies to work, but nothing is ever as we see it.
Sadly, you’ll have to wait till next week Monday to read more of the strategies posited and my conclusion, to which I certainly hope will provide an insightful response for future anti-corruption initiatives – a key theme of my articles for the following few weeks…
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Have you enjoyed reading so far? Fantastic! You can read more of these strategies and my final thoughts about them in next week’s continuation. I’m looking forward to it as much as you are!
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References
Collier, P. (2007). The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it. New York: Oxford University Press.
International Monetary Fund. (2013). Energy Subsidy Reform: lessons and implications. Washington DC: International Monetary Fund.
Lopez-Carlos, A. (2014). ‘Six Strategies to Fight Corruption’, World Bank Future Development, 14 May, http://blogs.worldbank.org/futuredevelopment/six-strategies-fight-corruption (accessed 25/04/2016)
Rose-Ackerman, S. (1998). Corruption and Development, in: Pleskovi, B. and Stiglitz, J. (eds.), Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics. Washington DC: World Bank.
The Nigerian Association of Criminology, Terrorism and Political Violence Studies 