|
Action For Better Cities |
|
CORRUPTING
TENDENCIES |
We all deserve city management that
is more transparent, more accountable, more efficient, more effective and more
people-friendly. Why should we put up with corruption? Together we
can change things for the better!
SOMETHING IS TERRIBLY WRONG WITH
OUR CITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM...
| BAD DECISIONS ABOUT PUBLIC GOODS | Often
irrational and shortsighted decisions are made regarding public goods
because the main criterion is a bribe. This distortion of the
decision-making process results in wrong suppliers or contractors being
chosen, unnecessary and inappropriate purchases being made or projects
undertaken. At the same time, the citizen has to deal with
sub-standard and over-priced goods and services, inefficiency and waste in
the provision of public services. |
| POOR QUALITY OF GOODS AND SERVICES | Bribes
come with a hidden cost to society in tow ways: one, the bribe giver
usually passes on the cost of the bribe by either increasing the purchase
price or reducing the quality of goods or services and two, the main
reason that the bribe was given was to counter-balance the poor quality of
goods or services which would never have been chosen in the first place. As it has been documented in Africa, a minister of health who is obliged to take steps necessary for the prevention, treatment and control of epidemic diseases, with a view to achieving progressively the full realisation of the right to health, knowingly, deliberately and corruptly purchased expired drugs, and when an epidemic breaks out, a whole community is wiped out. Similarly, a senior official of the ministry of education purchases inferior materials for the construction of a school building, an essential element in realising the right to education, and the building collapses, killing hundreds of school children. |
| DEPLETION OF NATIONAL WEALTH | Economically,
corruption leads to the depletion of national wealth. It is often
responsible for the funneling of scarce public resources to uneconomic
high-profile projects, such as dams, power plants, pipelines and
refineries, at the expense of less spectacular but more necessary
infrastructure projects such as schools, hospitals and roads, or the
supply of power and water to rural areas. Furthermore, it hinders
the development of fair market structures and distorts competition,
thereby deterring investment. According to an official of the Asian Development Bank, over the past twenty years, one Asian country is estimated to have lost $48 billion due to corruption, surpassing its entire foreign debt of $40.6 billion; while the state assets of another Asian country had fallen by more than $50 billion over the past decade, primarily due to deliberate undervaluing by corrupt officials responsible for a privatisation programme. |
| DISCRIMINATION | When a
person offers a bribe to a public official (whether in the form of money
or excessive "hospitality" or benefit in kind), and that bribe
is accepted, he or she immediately acquires a privileged status in
relation to other persons similarly placed who have not offered any such
gratification and are given preferential treatment. This difference
in treatment has no reasonable or objective justification, nor does it
pursue a legitimate aim. This constitutes discrimination. |
| BURDENS THE DISADVANTAGED | It is
the socially powerless and decent people who are often short-changed by
corruption, for they either cannot or will not join in playing the crooked
game. Because of their poverty or uprightness they constantly get
the short end of the stick in comparison with those who have the means to
influence decisions and the way things are handled to their advantage and
do so. This often means that services to which all citizens are nominally entitled by the constitution and the law are denied persons from the underclass, already under severe social duress, unless they cough up. It starts with giving someone who needs a certificate of birth or death a hard time, continues where children are enrolled in school, testimonials are required for job applications or positions with government are filled, and does not stop even when, following a catastrophe, the state distributes free or subsidised relief goods such as food. |
| VIOLATES HUMAN RIGHTS | If a corrupt
municipality were to forcibly evict a group of pavement and slum dwellers
and demolish their dwellings in order to enable a private entrepreneur to
construct a shopping complex in the vicinity, thereby depriving a colony
of persons who had migrated to the city in search of employment and chosen
to live on a pavement or slum nearest to their place of work or a place to
live in, their right to a livelihood, which is an integral component of
their right to life, may be infringed. Other examples of the impact of corruption abound: take the residents of shanty towns, who need to pay off city officials so that the little bit of living space they have built does not get torn down; or citizens harassed by police in their daily activities, having to pay left and right only to go about their business. Some bureaucracies only work if they are enticed by additional "rewards". In any case, grand and petty corruption is making life more difficult or outright threatens the lives of many people all over the world. |
| ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION | Environmental
degradation is yet another consequence of corrupt systems. The lack
of, or non-enforcement of, environmental regulations and legislation has
historically allowed the North to export its polluting industry to the
South. At the same time, careless exploitation of natural resources,
from timber and minerals to elephants, by both domestic and international
agents has led to ravaged natural environments. Environmentally
devastating projects are given preference in funding, because they are
easy targets for siphoning off public money into private pockets. |
| ULTIMATELY UNDERMINES DEMOCRACY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC | On the
political front, corruption constitutes a major obstacle to democracy and
the rule of law. In a democratic system, offices and institutions
lose their legitimacy when they are misused fro private advantage.
Though this is harmful in the established democracies, it is even more so
in newly emerging ones. Accountable political leadership cannot
develop in a corrupt climate. The effect of corruption on the social fabric of society is the most damaging of all. It undermines people's trust in the political system, in its institutions and its leadership. Frustration and general apathy among a disillusioned public result in a weak civil society. That in turn clears the way for despots as well as democratically elected yet unscrupulous leaders to turn national assets into personal wealth. Demanding and paying bribes become the norm. |
CORRUPTION
DOESN'T HAVE TO HAPPEN.
WE ALL DESERVE BETTER ...
| - | Regular, organised and open consultations with citizens on city financial matters and other important local issues; |
| - | Transparent tendering and procurement procedures and innovative procedures to ensure integrity in the process; |
| - | Internal independent audit capacity and annual external audit reports; |
| - | Regular programs of testing public officials integrity response; |
| - | Eliminating administrative and procedural incentives for corruption, including simplification of local taxation systems and reduction of administrative discretion in permit processing; |
| - | Swift prosecution and adjudication of corruption cases; |
| - | Promoting an ethic of service to the public while striving to put in place adequate remuneration for public servants; |
| - | Instituting measures to reduce nepotism and any form of unfair favouritism through fair and transparent systems of public appointments and promotions within the local government; |
| - | Establishing codes of conduct and provision for regular disclosure of assets of public officials and elected representatives; |
| - | Creating local coalitions of communities and organisations that can effectively monitor the operations of local government; |
| - | Encouraging the development of standards of accountability and service delivery that will transcend the terms of political office holders; |
| - | Creating effective public feedback mechanisms including ombudsmen, hotlines, complaints office and procedures, citizen report cards, and procedures for public petitioning and/or public interest litigation; |
| - | Encouraging open, timely and free debate about local government and urban issues in the media. |
| - | Have an ethics code for public servants - Public servants should have an ethics code that guide them in the process of carrying out public duties. Amongst the points would be that public servants should be impartial, uphold human rights and freedoms, be professional, ensure transparency, maintain confidentiality, be accessible, ensure publicity, be politically neutral and be fair. |
TRANSPARENCY POLICY FOR BEGINNERS
...
| ACCESS TO INFORMATION / RIGHT TO INFORMATION | Access
to information is a fundamental tool and access laws play an important
role in reducing corruption by making available information about
procurement processes, successful bids, policy decisions, conferral or
withholding of benefits by institutions. |
| GETTING PUBLIC SERVANTS TO DECLARE INCOMES AND ASSETS | While
many nations have enacted laws requiring public servants to disclose their
income and assets, effective enforcement has often been a challenge.
Detecting when a public servant's lifestyle is inconsistent with his or
her disclosure statement is time consuming and difficult, and public
prosecutors may not have either the resources or skills to conduct such
investigations. Civil society groups and an active media can
sometimes fill this gap. |
| ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES | The
success of anti-corruption legislation depends crucially on the calibre of
the agency that will enforce it. Where enforcers are themselves open
to bribery or subject to political manipulation, the law should leave them
little or no room to exercise discretion. |
| ANTI-CORRUPTION LAWS | To
promote compliance with new anti-corruption measures, some countries have
experimented with provisions that forgive past offences. Others have
enacted new laws 1) banning money laundering, 2) requiring officials
accused of corrupt behaviour to explain the sources of their wealth, and
3) protecting public servants who disclose the corrupt acts of other
government workers. |
| FOSTERING INSTITUTIONS TO COMBAT CORRUPTION | Implementing
anti-corruption measures requires an institutional framework. But
endemic corruption is a systemic disease that can only be controlled with
a systemic cure - no single institution will do. Effective and
durable corruption control requires multiple, reinforcing, and overlapping
institutions of accountability. And where corruption is endemic,
these institutions need to be of three kinds: horizontal accountability,
vertical accountability, and external accountability. |
| CODE OF CONDUCT FOR PUBLIC SERVANTS | Code
of conduct or ethics code for public servants serve a variety of
purposes. They can state norms of behaviour, such as the duty to
treat citizens courteously, that enhance respect for government.
They can also ban the receipt of gifts, conflicts of interest, the hiring
of relatives, or other acts that may corrupt government operations.
The legal effect of such codes can also vary. Some are voluntary
while violations of others can subject the offender to administrative or
criminal penalties. Codes of Ethics are not an isolated
phenomenon. They are part of a grown national legal system. As
such, they must be seen within their legal context. |
"We need to be clear: Corruption is not the grease that oils the
economy. Corruption undermines stability, deters foreign and domestic
investments, and erodes support for development assistance. Above all,
corruption imposes a disproportionately heavy burden on the poor."
- James D. Wolfensohn, President, World Bank.
MANY WAYS TO MAKE THINGS BETTER
...
Citizens need more discriminating
instruments to enforce accountability. Fortunately, a number of these are
available.
| - | Political parties can be a powerful tool for accountability when they are established and vigorous at the local level, as in many Latin American countries. They have a built-in incentive to uncover and publicise wrongdoing by the party in power and to present continuously an alternative set of public policies to voters. |
| - | Civil society and its precursor social capital enable citizens to articulate their reaction to local government and to lobby officials to be responsive. These representations generally come through NGOs (though spontaneous protests can also be considered civil society), which, like political parties, often have parent organisations at the provincial or national level. |
| - | If citizens are to hold their government accountable, they must be able to find out what it is doing. At the immediate neighborhood level, word of mouth is perhaps sufficient to transmit such information, but at any higher level some form of media becomes essential. In some countries, print media can perform this function, but generally their coverage is minimal outside larger population centers. A feasible substitute in many settings is low wattage AM radio, which is highly local, cheap to operate, and can offer news and talk shows addressing local issues. |
| - | Public meetings can be an effective mechanism for encouraging citizens to express their views and obliging public officials to answer them. The cabildos abiertos held in many Latin American countries are a good example. In some settings, such meetings may be little more than briefing sessions, but in others they can be effective in getting public officials to defend their actions. |
| - | Formal redress procedures have been included as an accountability mechanism in some decentralisation initiatives. Bolivia probably has the most elaborate instrument along these lines with its municipal Vigilance Committees that are based on traditional local social structures and are charged with monitoring elected councils, encouraged to file actionable complaints with higher levels if needed. |
In other systems, formal recall procedures are available to citizens dissatisfied with their officials.
| - | Opinion surveys have generally been considered too complex and sophisticated to use at the local level, but usable and affordable technologies are being developed in the Philippines enabling local-level NGOs to employ such polls to assess public opinion about service provision. |
A recent USAID assessment of
democratic local governance in six countries found that each country employed a
different mix of these mechanisms, while no country had employed them all.
No one instrument proved effective in all six settings, but various combinations
offered considerable promise. Some may be able to substitute at least in
part for others when weak or absent. Civil society and the media, for
example, might together be able to make up for a feeble party system at the
local level.
CONFUSED?
LET'S ANSWER SOME COMMON QUESTIONS AND MYTHS
| Myth
#1: Corruption is everywhere. Japan has it, Holland has it, the US
has it. There's nothing you can do about something endemic |
Fact:
Consider health. Illness is everywhere, too. And yet no one
concludes that efforts to prevent and treat illness should therefore be
curtailed. Like illness, the levels and types of corruption vary
greatly, and preventive and curative measures make a difference. |
| Myth
#2: Corruption has always existed. Like sin, it's part of
human nature. You can't do anything about it. |
Fact:
Because sin exists does not mean each of us sins to the same degree, and
the same holds for corruption. We can constrain opportunities for
corruption, even if the tendency is perennial. |
| Myth
#3: The concept of corruption is vague and culturally
determined. In some cultures the behaviour that bothers you is not
considered corrupt. |
Fact:
Critics argue that the fight against corruption is just another case of
the West trying to impose its views and values on the South. Some go
on to say that gift giving and taking in the public realm is a normal
tradition in many non-Western cultures. The debate over cultural relativism and neo-colonialism is a contested one. Where concepts like public procurement procedures are unknown concepts, bribing public officials to secure public works does not exist. Norms and values are context-bound and vary across cultures. Gift-giving is part of negotiating and relationship building in some parts of the world. But cultural relativism ends where the Swiss bank account enters the scene. It is a matter of degree: there are limits in all cultures beyong which an action becomes corrupt and unacceptable. When Olusegun Obasanjo, now President of Nigeria, criticised the corrupt practices of the dictatorial regime of Sani Aback, he was imprisoned. He once commented that, in African tradition, "a gift is made in the open for all to see, never in secret. Where a gift is excessive, it becomes an embarrassment, and is returned." This is supported by John T. Noonan's monumental history that shows no culture condones bribery. Anthropological studies indicate that local people are perfectly capable of distinguishing a gift and a bribe, and they condemn bribery. |
| Myth
#4: Cleansing our cities of corruption would require a wholesale
change of attitudes and values. This can only take place after ...
(the polemicist's choice: a hundred years of education, true revolution of
the proletariat, a Christian or Muslim or other religious revival of
state). Anything less will be futile. |
The
record of moralisation campaigns is not encouraging. More germane to
city managers are two other points. First, engineering such massive
social changes exceeds their scope of work. Second, in the meantime
there are ways to close loopholes, create incentives and deterrents,
augment accountability and competition, and improve the rules of the game. |
| Myth
#5: In many countries, corruption is not harmful at all. It is
the grease for the wheels of the economy and the glue for the political
system. |
Fact:
True, corrupt equilibrants do exists. But both theoretical and
empirical models show that they are inferior to equilibrants with less
corruption. Arguing that corrupt payments have a function in a given
system does not at all argue for their desirability. |
| Myth
#6: There's nothing that can be done if the man or woman at the top
is corrupt, or if corruption is systematic. |
Fact:
It is more propitious for anti-corruption efforts if leaders are clean and
if corruption is episodic rather than routine. But success stories
show that improved systems lead to fewer opportunities for everyone, even
the political powers, to reap corrupt rents. Systematic corruption
can be reduced. |
| Myth
#7: Worrying about corruption is superfluous. With free
markets and multi-party democracies, corruption will gradually disappear. |
Fact:
Democracy and markets enhance competition and accountability, thereby
reducing corruption. But during transitions, corruption may
increase. In stable democracies, corruption is a chronic threat to
the provision of many public goods and services which are inherently the
monopoly of the state (such as justice). |
COMMUNITY GROUPS HAVE MADE A
DIFFERENCE
Many good policy changes come about because ordinary citizens make a noise about
them. In many cities all over the world citizen action has improved
transparency and curbed corruption. Organisations around Asia have
campaigned against corruption in India, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, etc.
A SUCCESS! In March 1998 in India, a couple of civil rights NGOs
frustrated by thirty years of broken promises of the part of the Indian
government, took it in their own hands to establish the People's Ombudsman
Commission. transparency International India and Lok Sevak Sangh, two of
the major Indian NGOs, resorted to this drastic and unprecedented move in
response to the charges of corruption against elected public officials.
This might be one of the more radical examples of the power that NGOs can wield
in the fight against corruption, but it does illustrate how solutions to a
global problem are emerging at the local and national levels.
ANOTHER SUCCESS! Seoul in South Korea revamped their license application
system and put it online. When the application process went online,
citizens could track their application process and this reduced the amount of
money that was paid under the counter to facilitate the application
process. This resulted in substantial savings for the local authorities as
well as fairer services to the citizens by the means of an open transparent
system.
.... YOUR COMMUNITY CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
If you are concerned about transparency issue, don't be afraid to speak
up. The bottom of this page has more information and some people to
contact for help. Here are some ideas for highlighting your issue:
Express yourself. Write to the authorities. Copy your letter
to other relevant authorities, NGOs and the media. Take photo and include
them in the letter.
Join or form a group to work on the issue. A lot can be done when a
community of people work together. Link up with other similar groups.
Rally public support. Then do a small survey. The media and
politicians will take notice if you can show that many people support you.
Get informed. Get help to prepare alternative proposals.
Present these to the authorities.
Get in the media with a media stunt or demonstration. Have some
fun. Be creative. These issues are serious but that doesn't mean we
can't have fun as we campaign.
Remember
Do be persistent but also be flexible
- changing things is never easy. If you are not getting your message
across then find out what is going wrong and then try another method.
Don't be a NIMBY ("Not in my backyard").
Just getting the best deal for your street or area may not be the 'real'
solution. Look for solutions that benefit everybody.
NEED MORE INFORMATION?
TRY THESE RESOURCES ...
Corrupt Cities: A Practical Guide to Cure and Prevention by Robert
Klitgaard, Ronald Maclean-Abaroa, and H. Lindsey Parris. ISBN:
1-55815-511-2 ICS Press, Oakland, Calif. USA www.icspress.com
Fax: 510-238-8440
Corruption and Good Governance: Discussion paper 3 by UNDP and available
through the Division of Public Affairs, United nations Development Programme,
One United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017. www.undp.org
Corruption Fighters' Tool Kit by Transparency International and available
at their website www.transparency.org/toolkits
or by emailing toolkit@transparency.org
Global Corruption Report also by Transparency International and available
at the website www.globalcorruptionreport.org
CORIS - The Corruption Online Research InformationSystem
CORIS is Transparency International's web-based initiative to meet the research
needs of anti-corruption practitioners in accessing both published and grey
literature on corruption and governance. It include the texts of law on
subjects such as freedom of information and whistleblower protection lows.
www.corisweb.org
Highly recommended websites to try:
| Transparency International | www.transparency.org |
| World Bank Anti-Corruption Resource Centre | www.worldbank.org/publicsector/anticorruption |
| OECD Anti-Corruption Unit | www.oecd.org/daf/nocorruption/20nov1e.htm |
| International Anti-Corruption Conferences (IACC) | www.transparency.de/iacc/index.html |
| Council of Europe's Fight against Corruption and Organised Crime | www.coe.fr/corruption/eaction0.htm |
| The Global Forum on Fighting corruption | www.usia.gov/topical/econ/integrity/homepage.htm |
| OAS Anti-corruption Information Centre | www.oas.org/En/prog/juridico/spanish/Lucha.html |
| IMF's Code of Good Practices on Transparency in Monetary and Financial Policies | www.imf.org/external/np/mae/mft/index.htm |
| U.S. State Department Fight Against Bribery and Corruption | www.usia.gov/topical/econ/bribes |
| United Nations Action against corruption and Bribery | www.uncjin.org/Documents/corrupt.htm |
| Anti-Corruption Network for Transition Economies | www.nobribes.org |
| America's Accountability/Anti-Corruption Project | www.respondanet.com/english |
| The Anti-Corruption Review | www.ita.doc.gov/legal/corr-rev.html |
... THESE PEOPLE CAN ALSO HELP
Global Campaign on Urban Governance,
UN-Habitat, P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi, Kenya.
Tel: 254-2-623216, Fax: 254-2-624264; Email: governance@unhabitat.org
Website: www.unhabitat.org/governance
The Kuala Lumpur Society for Transparency and
Integrity,
Unit 2-2-49 Wisma Rampai, Jalan 34/26, Taman Sri Rampai,
Setapak, 53300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: 60-3-41436373, 41495576; Fax:60-3-41435968; email: info@transparency.org.my
Website: www.transparency.org
This publication was made possible with assistance from UNDP - The Urban
Governance Initiative (TUGI). For further information on TUGI, please
contact the Programme Manager, The Urban Governance Initiative, United Nations
Development Programme, P.O. Box 12544, 50782 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: 60-3-2095-9122; Fax: 60-3-2093-2361; email tugi@undp.org
Website: www.tugi.org