AFROLEAKS: What exactly are we talking about when we say ‘fight against corruption?’ [Part II]

What exactly are we talking about when we say ‘fight against corruption?’ [Part II]

  By Femi Senu | @Femi_Senu | Monday 16 May 2016 | 00:00 GMT

Last week we had a look at Strategies A to D, and it was very clear that corruption still manages to affect the political, economic and social development of a nation despite implementation. Let’s see if Strategies E and F have a better outlook!

Strategy E – Establishing international conventions

Popular international conventions and legal frameworks adopted for the fight against corruption and corruption control include the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Anti-bribery convention and the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).

UNCAC provides a global framework that benefits largely less developed and developing countries. It covers subjects such as domestic and foreign corruption, extortion, preventative measures, anti-money laundering remedies, conflicts of interest laws and mediums to recover illicit funds deposited by officials in offshore banks.

However, UNCAC’s limitation is that it has no enforcement in sovereign states. The success of the convention heavily relies on national governments to enforce compliance. Lopez-Claros (2014) suggests that the approach to combat corruption needs to be dynamic, with the creation of robust anti-corruption laws promoted and enforced by a proactive government.

For example, states can apply the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon’s remarks on the Haitian state who suggested the usefulness of the rule of law and posited that the Haitian government would have to show the people that ‘it could enforce the law and demonstrate that in democratic states, no one – including political authorities and the police themselves – is above the law’ (UN News Centre, 2014). This vision is equally needed in strengthening the institutions of less developed countries and promoting the principle that ‘no one is above the law’.

Before 1997, only one government had sanctioned foreign bribery as many governments saw bribe payments to foreign public officials as legitimate business expenses for tax purposes according to the OECD‘s Annual Report of 2013. And as a result of commercial interests governments have been identified as protecting firms from complying with anti-corruption laws because they do not want to negate their business stance in front of their competitors in other states (OECD, 2013).

Strategy F – Deploying smart technology

Technology is seen as a useful medium in the fight against corruption. For example, it has been argued that ‘if government-induced distortions create opportunities for corruption’, then frequent direct contact between government officials and citizens can open the door for illicit transactions.

Technology has been seen to encourage more of an ‘arms-length relationship between officials and civil society’, and using the internet in this direction has been seen to be an effective tool to reduce corruption (Andersen et al., 2011). The effectiveness of online platforms has helped the government and civil society in transactions, with the result demonstrating how the business community has benefitted greatly in the area of tax collection, public procurement and the issues of red tape.

Purchasing goods and services is also seen as a major source of corruption at state level, with the awarding of contracts riddled with bias and excessive bureaucracy, in that, most states have constructed into their systems the notion of ‘I owe you a favour of paying you back’, which then leads to tacit collusion in public procurement (Lopez-Claros, 2014).

In consequence, many states support a system that encourages openness and fariness. Yet according to Lopez-Claros (2014), less developing states can learn from the example of Chile.

Chile

Chile has explored the latest technologies and is seen as a model for one of the world’s most transparent systems (i.e. of this is the Chile Compra that was launched in 2003) (Chile Compra-Strategic Plan 2002-2004). It is a public electronic system for purchasing and hiring based on an internet platform. The system serves companies, public organizations, and individual citizens, with the approach earning recognition for excellence, transparency and efficiency.

The philosophy for this understanding, according to Lopez-Claros (2014), is to deny opportunities for corruption through changing incentives, locking the doors for loopholes and stopping unnecessary rules that encourage corrupt behaviour. This includes effective approaches to stop corruption through gradual changes in human behaviour, processes that lead to severe punishment for the violation of rules established under anti-corruption laws as well as moral education that will openly condemn corruption and corrupt behaviour.

Conclusion

Although diverse mechanisms have been developed over the years to combat corruption, corruption still poses numerous challenges such as being a barrier to democracy and its infiltration into the political, economic, social and justice systems of a nation.

The effects negatively impact a nation’s environment, wellbeing and health. Notably, governments are not the only party guilty of corruption, as it has been visibly identified within our local communities, nationally, and has integrated internationally with excessively corrupt bureaucrats ignoring the dynamism of local community representatives and grassroots voices.

Corruption continues to frustrate everyday activities, and making life difficult for those affected. Indeed, the approaches introduced by writers such as Lopez-Claros (2014) and Rose-Ackerman (1998) are useful, which if explored in the right way will contribute greatly to the fight against corruption.

Inasmuch as it takes diverse methodological approaches to reveal ‘the dots of corruption’, these dots require scrutiny if contemporary society is to resolve the issue of corruption (next week’s article titled: ‘Do Anti-Corruption Initiatives Pose a Success or Challenge to Nigeria’s Modern Democracy?’ will examine some of these dots).

These dots such as the impact of corruption, the effects of inequality, trade agreements, policies for development, open and covert corruption, laws and the institutions that direct national or international communities on corruption need to be highlighted and revealed systematically.

Additionally, individual citizens need to shun corruption and join in the fight against corruption. Great things can be achieved when people stand together and campaign against corruption. Sadly, corruption will continue to survive if people fail to support and openly condemned it at both national and international level.

According to Edmund Burke, Irish orator, philosopher, and politician (1729-97), ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’. Similarly, all it takes for corruption to continue is when everyone does nothing to shun it. The fight against corruption will not be easy. For states to overlook reform that will empower the fight against corruption will be a huge injustice.

Yet, individual states cannot alone win the fight against corruption. If particular reforms are to have any effect, it must unite the strategies discussed into a coherent and cogent framework. If not, corruption will continue no matter what action is taken. And who really wants that to happen?

These are some of the issues I hope to discuss in my future articles. But most importantly, I will be connecting the dots between corruption, the economy and development with a focus to analyse corruption scandals and the drivers of corruption. In particular, I will write commentaries on how to resolve issues concerning corruption, drawing on varying empirical sources and providing evidence to suggest practicable strategies to stop corruption.

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Have you enjoyed what you’ve read so far? Fantastic! You can look forward to reading my next article in the AfroLeaks series next Monday titled: ‘Do Anti-Corruption Initiatives Pose a Success or Challenge to Nigeria’s Modern Democracy?’

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References

Andersen, T., Bentzen, J., Dalgaard, C.-J. & Selaya, P. (2011). ‘Does the Internet Reduce Corruption? Evidence from U.S. States and across countries’, The World Bank Economic Review, 25(3), pp. 387-417.

Chile-compra. (2005). Strategic Plan 2002-2004: Public procurement system. Santiago: Ministry of Finance.

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)

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2013). Annual Report 2013. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

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.

UN News Centre. (2014). ‘Ban praises Haitian Police Recruits, Judicial Institutions in Strengthening Rule of Law’, United Nations News Centre, 15 July, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48278#.VtYDms7XJdi (accessed 25/04/2016)