By Bereket Gebru
Various studies have shown Ethiopia to be among the least corrupt countries in Africa. The individual encounters people in Ethiopia have with corrupt practices are generally perceived to be much less than the average African. Although there might be a number of reasons for the fact, culture and economic dynamics can be taken as two of those.
Trends in the past few years have, however, raised the popular perception of corruption in the country. Corruption has become a national agenda threatening social, economic and political life in Ethiopia.
Culturally, the rapid hybridization and even replacement of traditional Ethiopian values by more secular and liberal western values especially in urban centers seems to have altered ethical standards. The social values that fostered acts of the Good Samaritan seem to have increasingly shifted to a ‘compensating help’ sort of mentality. People on the street who push somebody’s car so it starts are more likely going to expect some compensation for their help these days. Although not in Adam Smith’s direct words, Ethiopians are getting more familiar with the concept of “there is no free lunch.”
Economically, tremendous price surges that shore up the cost of living in the face of unbalanced income levels for the majority of the population have injected a sense of desperation in people. As a result, people tend to look for ways of making extra money through any means possible. That tendency seems to push them more towards various acts of corruption.
Yet another aspect of the economic dynamics in the country in the past few years is rapid economic growth. There has been a huge increase in the number of local and foreign private businesses operating in the economy at different capacities. Considering one conducive environment for corruption is the interaction of private and public enterprises, the rise in the number of private businesses and their urge for profit likely increases the possibility of corruption.
Cognizant of the considerable powers pushing corruption up the ladder of social, economic and political threats, the Ethiopian people and government have taken concrete combative measures.
One of the most notable of these acts was the establishment of the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission about fourteen years ago. Credited for some national high profile cases over the years, the Commission’s anti-corruption approach focuses on expanding ethics education, corruption prevention, and investigating and prosecuting corruption offences.
The Commission’s report for last fiscal year states:
Millions of Ethiopians received ethics and anti-corruption education. The Commission also successfully reviewed corruption-prone systems, thereby preventing the theft of more than 645 million birr in this fiscal year alone through corruption, usually in relation to malpractices in public procurement. Thousands of corruption offences were also successfully investigated leading to the effective prosecution of corrupt individuals. Mainly thanks to the Commission’s awareness raising efforts, anti-corruption was made one of the popular agenda across the country. Public participation in the fight against corruption has been enhanced.
A major progress that came out of the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has been the National Anti-Corruption Coalition. With the authority entrusted to it, the Commission forged consultation forums with various associations and segments of society to curb corruption. As the fight against the vice of corruption requires more concerted efforts, the commission eventually exerted its full efforts and established an inclusive National Anti-Corruption Coalition six years ago.
An article entitled “Ethiopia: Commanding Coalition to Combat Corruption” states that “Members of the coalition, the well-built convergence, include the representatives of government, civic societies and the private sector as well as opposition parties which have seats in the parliament. Most importantly, as the executive, judiciary and legislative arms of government are members of the coalition, it would offer an opportunity to lead and direct the fight against corruption comprehensively.”
The coalition holds its conference every two years. Accordingly, the third conference was held on December 17 and 18, 2015 at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) hall. One of the important milestones of this conference was the announcement that the government has decided to make every governmental institutions design and implement its own corruption prevention strategy.
Reports state that Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn disclosed the preparation of a document by the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission that enables governmental institutions design and implement their own corruption prevention strategy at his opening speech of the conference. The reports further indicated that the Premier accorded the highest responsibility of implementation of the plan to the management of these institutions stressing that the government will closely follow the progress made through the channels of accountability.
Corruption prevention has been one of the activities of federal and regional anti-corruption bodies in our country. Towards that end, these bodies expand ethics and anti-corruption education and review corruption-prone working procedures to close loopholes that are conducive for corruption.
The prevention work of the Commission gives special focus to strategically identified areas such as tax and revenue collection, justice sector, procurement in major infrastructural projects, land administration, financial administration, and promotion of ethics education among children and the youth. The Commission reviewed work procedures in these areas with a view to making them more transparent and less cumbersome.
The transfer of these corruption prevention responsibilities to every governmental institution exponentially multiplies the number of public institutions benefitting from these anti-corruption methods. Instead of waiting for the federal and regional anti-corruption bodies to conduct work procedure reviews or carry out educational activities, these institutions are now entrusted with the responsibility of engaging the problem themselves.
With the anti-corruption bodies carrying out supervision and assistance in these endeavors, their efforts are more efficiently used. With such infrastructure in place, the 645 million birr prevented from being lost to corruption in the last fiscal year alone is going to skyrocket.
The introduction of such a step in governmental institutions also has its perks on anti-corruption activities elsewhere. Until last year, the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission dealt only with corruption in the public sector. The private sector remained out of its realm unless it colluded with the public sector in corrupt practices. Prevention of public funds from being exploited illegally was given a priority until recently.
The transfer of preventive responsibilities to governmental institutions themselves, however, provides the perfect opportunity for the Commission to deal with the private sector more closely. The time, material, financial and human resources that used to be spent on preventive efforts in governmental institutions can now be used to carryout preventive, investigative and prosecution activities in the private sector.
The law restricting the Commission to the public sector was amended last year. According to the Commission’s report for the last fiscal year,
The major reason for the amendment of the laws was the existence of loopholes, ambiguity, and other problems in the laws, which led to different interpretations in many instances, thereby enabling corrupt individuals get away with their corrupt acts using those loopholes as an escape route. In the lead up to the amendment of the laws, there were corrupt acts which should have been covered by anti-corruption laws. Secondly, international and continental anti-corruption conventions which Ethiopia ratified require that corruption in the private sector be covered by anti-corruption laws. Formerly, our anti-corruption laws didn’t cover corruption in the private sector, making it absolutely necessary to amend the laws so that this sector is covered. There was also a conviction on the part of the Commission that promulgating anti-corruption laws under one proclamation would contribute to the success of the anti-corruption endeavor. Anti-corruption laws were, therefore, promulgated under one proclamation.
With the rapid economic growth in the country and the increased interaction such a condition creates between the public and private sectors, the instances for corruption are generally expected to go up. The frequency of these interactions and the new scopes of contact created along the way would make things rife for corruption.
Sources indicate that the number of employees who encounter fraud on the job has increased across the globe since the 2008 financial crisis. With instability continuing in some markets and sluggish growth in others, Ernest &Young’s 2013 fraud survey found that 42% of board directors and senior managers in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa knew about irregular financial reporting linked to meeting financial targets.
Considering the smaller size of private businesses in our country, any financial impropriety is more likely to be known by senior managers and owners. Pressured by the derive for profit, however, a large section of managers and owners in the private sector consider different acts of corruption as a way to win contracts, and access finance and other resources.
The expansion of the Commission’s jurisdiction to cover the private sector plays a considerable role towards tackling such problems in the sector. In a drift away from long standing work traditions, the Commission can now investigate and prosecute corruption cases in the private sector. Educational and preventive measures have, however, been an integral part of the national anti-corruption endeavor all along.
A newly introduced perception of potential prosecution and conviction by private sector actors hopefully discourages some from indulging in corrupt practices. The preventive and prosecution activities expected to intensify against offenders in the private sector would also discourage others from following suit.
The expansion of preventive measures to all government institutions should also dry some swampy corners of the public-private interaction.