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THE CRITICAL ROLE OF AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS IN TACKLING CORRUPTION AND THE PREVENTIVE MEASURES AND MECHANISMS TO BE PUT IN PLACE. Presentation by Hon. Dr. Miria Matembe From Uganda
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THE CRITICAL ROLE OF AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS IN TACKLING CORRUPTION AND THE PREVENTIVE MEASURES AND MECHANISMS TO BE PUT IN PLACE. Presentation by Hon. Dr. MiriaMatembe From Uganda At the Conference on promoting Good Governance for Ombudsman and Anti-Corruption office in Public Institutions in Africa Organized by CAFRAD 10-12 May 2010 Tangier, MOROCCO
1.0 Introduction • I wish to thank CAFRAD for inviting me to participate and address this important conference. I would like to however, caution you right from the onset that am not here to indulge in the usual rhetoric but to face brutal facts as they exist in our African continent today.
I wish to begin my presentation with this sad quotation from a recent publication entitled The State of Africa; A history of Fifty years of Independence. • “After decades of mismanagement and corruption most African states have become hollowed out. They are no longer instruments capable of solving the public good. Indeed far from being able to provide aid and protection to their citizens. African governments and the vampire - like politicians who run them are regarded by the population they rule as yet another burden they have to bear in the struggle for survival.”(Martin Meredith).
The critical role of African governments in promoting corruption and undermining institutions and mechanisms intended to fight it. • It is my conviction that most African governments are more inclined to promote corruption rather than fight it. • Most African governments are so interested in either securing power or staying in power so much that they use corruption as a means to achieve this ambition. They therefore find it difficult to tackle corruption because they are not only compromised but they fear to cut the hands that feed them.
Corruption in Africa: • Is systemic and endemic. • Has hindered economic development, caused institutional mismanagement and weakened society by eroding ethical values and destroying the moral fabric of African peoples. • Has undermined democratic governance by polluting the political processes, damaging business environment and distancing citizens from their role in governance. • Has become a violation of human rights because many people in Africa have been denied the social services and economic benefit they are entitled to.
Corruption in Africa:…. • The World Bank has estimated that 40% of African private wealth is held off shore. The scramble for wealth of African governments’ leaders has spawned a culture of corruption permeating every level of society. • A report prepared for the African Union 2002 estimated that corruption cost Africa $148 billion annually- more than a quarter of the continent’s entire Gross Domestic Product. Veteran oil- producing states like Nigeria, Angola and Gabon, rank highest for the sums dissipated by their ruling elites. But new oil producers are no different.
Corruption in Africa:…. • Even when regimes have changed hands, new governments, whatever promises they made on arrival, have lost no time in adopting the habits of their predecessors. “When Kenya’s Daniel Arap Moi was eventually obliged to stand down at the end of 2002 after twenty- four years in power, investigators estimated that he and his cronies had looted as much as $ 3 billion. Moi’s successor Mwai Kibaki pledged to root out corruption. But no sooner had Moi’s “karbanet syndicate” of Kalenjin politicians departed than they were replaced by Kibaki’s “Mount Kenya mafia” of Kikuyu politicians who moved swiftly to set up their own lucrative deals” ( A recent publication entitled “it is our turn to eat” by Michelle Wrong).
2.0 The current state and nature of Africa and its governments • 2.1 The continent • The African continent is generally characterized by, • Poor infrastructure and weak governance institutions. • Mostly illiterate, unskilled, ignorant, poor and extremely vulnerable citizenry • Unstable, undemocratic and grossly inefficient and un caring governments presided over by big powerful men. • High levels of moral decadence and ethical degeneration.
2.0 The current state and nature of Africa and its governments ….. • 2.2 The governments • Most African governments are run by strong men whose major motivation for acquisition and retention of power have little to do with serving the people and developing their nations but has a lot to do with self enrichment. • Most of them are self seeking over - ambitious individuals with no national vision for the state formation and national building. As a matter of fact many of them believe that they are the state itself. Many have personalized the state.
2.0 The current state and nature of Africa and its governments ….. Most of these leaders, both past and current have the following common characteristics at heart: • Charisma but no character yet character and integrity are critical for leaders. • No national vision but personal ambitions. • Self centeredness and no national focus. • No love for their country and their people. • Extremely egoistic, power hungry and greedy for wealth. • Want to remain in leadership purposely for acquisition of wealth and building empires for their families’ clans and cronies.
2.0 The current state and nature of Africa and its governments ….. • At the centre of their leadership is building and retaining personal power and wealth. • Their style of leadership is to exploit their people’s differences in terms of tribe, ethnicity, religion or any other factor for their own selfish interests, with the policy of divide and rule. • They keep the people fighting each other, while they loot the nation’s resources and kill the people who oppose them. • Keep people ignorant and poor so that they can remain vulnerable.
2.0 The current state and nature of Africa and its governments ….. • These leaders have neither interest in the people they lead nor interest in development. Their tribal loyalties are stronger than a common sense of nation hood. • Their concern is primitive: wealth accumulation to keep them in power.
3.0 Roles, Measures and Mechanisms of African governments in fighting corruption • African governments have the biggest role if corruption in Africa is to be managed. • It is incumbent upon African governments to establish an environment conducive to fighting corruption and employ both preventative and punitive measure to tackle it. Effective punitive measures act as deterrent to corruption and are able to drastically reduce it especially if the big “fish” are punished. • A conducive environment for dealing with corruption would be characterized by the following;
3.1 Legal frame work • Governments must put in place and enforce laws for dealing with the corrupt. Such laws should be consistent with the African Convention on Fighting Corruption. They should include, Prevention of Corruption Act, Whistle blowers Act, Money laundering Act and Leadership code. • Governments should also require the professionals to put in place and enforce Professional Ethical Codes of Conduct. In Uganda such laws have been enacted. Through such laws, governments have to protect the peoplewilling to report corruption and must insulate them from political persecution and dismissal from their jobs so as to be free to report and give evidence against the corrupt without fear for their lives or live hood.
Institutional Framework • Governments must establish and build strong institutions with clearly defined mandates without political interference, harassment and intimidation. In Uganda we have established the following institutions: • The Inspector General of Government (IGG). • The ministry of Ethics and Integrity (ME&I). • The Audits General (AG). • The Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP). • The parliamentary Public Committee (PAC). • A parliamentary budget office (PBO). • Local government Public Accounts Committee (LPAC). • The public procurement and disposal of public assets Act (PPDA).
3.4 Effective Parliaments • There must be strong and effective parliaments capable of exercising their oversight role on the executive without intimidation and harassment. • Governments need to respect the principle of separation of powers in which parliaments are able to play their oversight roles on the executive. In most African countries, the executives and parliaments are fused together thereby undermining the role and power of parliament.
3.5 Independent judiciary • Without an independent judiciary, free from political intimidation and threats the battle against corruption is futile. • 3.6 Strong civil society • Need for a well organized strong civil society capable of mobilizing the public to hold the government accountable. A strong civil society is capable of checking the excesses of government. In countries where strong civil society exists governments cannot operate with impunity as those in Africa. • Strong independent media to expose corruption, intimidation, harassment and prosecution.
3.7 A mobilized and educated public • Need for a mobilized public which is aware of its rights and responsibilities. They must know the relationship between corruption and delivery of service to them. • Currently the public in Africa is generally unaware of its rights and it doesn’t know the negative impact of corruption on service delivery and development. In fact the public assists the political leaders in robbing it. • It is generally uninformed of its responsibility to put leaders to task and hold them accountable for corruption and failure to deliver service. • It is the role of government to strengthen their citizens and educate them about their civic rights and responsibilities.
3.8 Political will • To crown all this, there is need for a strong political will on the part of governments to support the fight against corruption. • Political will can not merely be expressed through verbal declarations and pronouncements but must be demonstrated through such actions as: • Allocation of sufficient resources to the institutions responsible for fighting corruption and building ethics and integrity in public office. • Putting in place strong legal framework capable of punishing the corrupt .The laws must be applied evenly to both the strong and the weak and must not be selectively applied as is mostly the case in the African states.
Political will…. • Guaranteeing the independence of institutions and refraining from interfering with the mandate of the Anti- corruption agencies. • Decisively punishing political leaders who are corrupt instead of protecting them as cadres of the ruling parties. • Political will also means that governments must respect and abide by established rules and procedures of the institutions they put in place. For instance in Uganda 75% of government contracts are secured in violation of the rules and procedures of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority.
3.9 Other measures governments can take include: • Provide training in anti corruption codes of ethics. • Track its transparency and accountability systems including human resource and procurement procedures. • Engage civil society and media. • Analyze scope, trends and causes of corruption. • Educate the public on the ills of corruption so that they may resent it, resist and report it when it occurs. • Election and campaign finance reporting.
Conclusion • In conclusion I want to say, that it is well and good to discuss all these mechanisms and measures to be used by African governments in their roles to fight corruption but the fact of the matter is that most of the current African governments are not in a position to play this role. They are more interested in rhetoric rather than action for the reasons already explained in this presentation. These government are so insecure and protective of their power that they cannot apply these strong measures in fighting corruption.
Conclusion…. • What is currently needed in Africa now is strong governments which are secure enough to think about and empower their peoples to get their destines into their hands. This calls for a total mind shift in African people. We need a transformative leadership which is secure, confident and people centered. Leadership that will reverse the moral decadence and replace it with a system which promotes good and pro people values. A leadership that applies God’s quality management system.
Conclusion…. • Both the leaders and the led need a mind shift that will enable them focus on, and value human life more than power and materialism. A system that will promote efficiency and humility. A system that will perceive leadership as a service rather than a path to self enrichment and wealth accumulation. As long as Africans remain with the current value system and the type of leadership we have the fight against corruption will remain futile.
