BY WOSSENSEGED ASSEFA
Some 50,000,000,000 dollars! That is the amount of money that Africa loses to illicit financial flows (IFFs) every year. And from those 50 billion dollars, according to Global Financial Integrity’s estimate, between 2005 and 2014, an average of 1,259 million USD to 3,153 million USD left Ethiopia as IFFs every year.
To help put that into perspective, the average growth lost because of the capital flight is found to be about 2.2 percentage points per year, between 2001-2013, according to Alemayehu Geda and Addis Yimer’s 2016 paper titled Effects of capital flight on growth and poverty reduction in Ethiopia: evidence from a simulation-based analysis. However, IFFs are just one part of the bigger picture, corruption.
Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Robert Zoellick, the 11th president of the World Bank, once said, “Corruption is the cancer that steals from the poor, eats away at governance and moral fiber and destroys trust.” Corruption is indeed a cancer, and it adversely affects many structures of a nation from its political hemisphere to its economic hemisphere all the way to the private and social lives of its citizens.
It is an epidemic that has ravaged countries like Ethiopia for quite some time now. So much so that The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranks Ethiopia 96th out of 180 countries on a scale of the least corrupt nations to the most corrupt nations, and if that by itself is not enough proof to the extent of corruption in the country, the same index gives Ethiopia a 37 out 100 grading in transparency.
Corruption in the country ranges from petty to grand, and acts as an impediment to its development and further exacerbating poverty. Lack of accountability and transparency, low levels of democratic culture and tradition, lack of citizen participation, lack of clear regulations and authorization, low level of institutional control, absence of punishment, and centralization of authority and resources are some of the factors that contribute to corruption thriving in the country, according to various studies.
The adverse effects are rather clear to the eye but can be further reinforced by research. For example, research papers published in 2007 and 2008 examined the economic consequences of corruption perception, as defined by the Corruption Perception Index (CPI). The researchers found a correlation between a higher CPI and higher long-term economic growth.
In other words, the lower a country’s CPI rating the lower the long-term economic growth of that country. Macro level studies, using country-level data to explore cross-country variations in both governance and economic indicators, have consistently found that corruption significantly decreases economic growth and development.
For example, cross-country data indicate that corruption is consistently correlated with lower growth rates, GDP per capita, economic equality, as well as lower levels of human development. In addition, some researchers have provided empirical evidence that corruption lowers capital productivity and constitutes an important element of investors’ decision-making processes.
According to Johann Graf Lambsdorff (2003) findings, an increase in corruption by one point on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (highly clean) is found to lower productivity by 4 percent of GDP and decrease net annual capital inflows by 0.5 percent of GDP.
Many regulations have been introduced by the Ethiopian government to combat corruption in the country. Important powers of the anti-corruption commission, corruption crimes investigation and prosecution have been granted to the Federal Attorney General, since May 2016. Under this new law, all the rights and duties given to the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) related to investigation and prosecution are transferred to the Federal Attorney General as per article 22 (2) of the proclamation.
Therefore, the current legal regime of anti-corruption includes, the Federal Attorney General Establishment Proclamation No. 943/2016. Proclamations, No. 433/2005, 434/2005, the amendments to these proclamations No. 883/2015, 884/2015. Asset registration is another anti-corruption measure that the government has espoused.
The Disclosure and Registration of Assets Proclamation of 2010 requires that all “appointees, elected persons and public servants of the Federal Government and the Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa city administrations” must declare and register assets owned by them and their family members. The Implementation of this law seems to be relatively slow, and only a small percentage of government officials have registered their assets.
Even though some legislative efforts (Article 444 of the Criminal Code, and the Proclamation on the Protection of Witnesses and Whistleblowers of Criminal Offences) to protect employees and citizens who report crime and corruption exists, Ethiopia lacks an extensive system to shield whistleblowers from requital and prosecution. Only a few whistleblower cases have been reported publicly in recent years (PPLAAF 2018).
The country has also signed international agreements to help fight corruption. Ethiopia signed the United Nation Convention against Corruption in 2003 and ratified it in 2007 (UNODC 2018). The country signed the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption in 2004 and ratified it in 2007 by the (African Union 2018).
Although all these measures and many more have been taken the country is still struggling with corruption. So, what can be done to truly end corruption? The country needs to develop a culture of transparency and integrity. To eliminate corruption, “Integrity, transparency and the fight against corruption have to be part of the culture. They have to be taught as fundamental values.” — Angel Gurría, OECD secretary general.
According to WHO, 60% of related factors to individual health and quality of life are correlated to lifestyle. Millions encounter illness, disabilities and even death due to unhealthy lifestyles. The unhealthy lifestyle that many follow and lead has brought up a generation that is struggling with its health and well-being.
The nature and cause of these diseases is akin to the source of corruption. Like a generation struggling with its health because of lifestyles that it follows, we have an epidemic amidst our generation that is caused by the “unhealthy lifestyles” of people.
And instead of teaching people to follow a healthy lifestyle to prevent this disease from happening rules and regulations have been put out as cures, sadly most of these rules are “medicines” that can easily be ignored and left out.To attest to that in 2017 the Business Anti-Corruption Portalstated that, “the legislative framework to prevent and sanction corruption in Ethiopia is strong on paper; however, the government does not implement these laws effectively, and the judiciary is known to be politically influenced.”
The root of the epidemic seems to hold its place in early institutions like schools and universities. These institutions are the true breeding grounds for corruption; however, there are many battles that can be won at this battle ground. For example, in the upcoming national exams, the government plans to use technology to combat cheating. While this is a good step forward, it is again another example of a “cure”, and does almost nothing to get rid of the culture of cheating.
The way forward is to increase anti-corruption and anti-fraudulence awareness through education of the youth, propagation of anti-corruption and anti-fraudulence information to stop the negative culture of cheating and fraudulency from developing.
It is possible to give sick people medicine to combat a disease, but a better alternative is to prevent people from getting sick in the first place. It seems that we have forgotten the Ethiopian saying “ታሞ ከመማቀቅ አስቀድሞ መጠንቀቅ” which basically means prevention is better than cure.
For a country to be free from the bondage of corruption a new healthy generation should be nurtured. And as Abdul Kalam the 11th president of India said,” If a country is to be corruption free and become a country of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three societal members who can make a difference the father, the mother and the teacher.”, this responsibility to uproot the roots of the epidemic lies on the shoulders of parents and educators. Abraham Lincoln is also quoted for his famous saying, “The Philosophy of the classroom today is the philosophy of the government tomorrow.”
Stay Safe!
The Ethiopian herald December 24/2020
