4. Introduction
4.2 Contributory Factors to Corruption
According to Maya Chadda “the debate about the definition of corruption is closely related to that about the causes of corruption because people differ in their views on what causes corruption” (Chadda, 2004: 125). So, in this section, some of these major factors besides the extended family system and gift-giving that are responsible for corruption in Africa, especially in the public service are discussed.
One of the major causes of corruption in most African states is the poor remuneration of .The reason why people work is to take care of their basic necessities. Hence, when what is paid to a civil servant is too little to take care of his basic needs, there then arises the temptation to look for other ways, including corrupt means to satisfy the needs. For instance, in Somalia, as recorded by Hope civil servants had to resort to bribery in order to survive because the public sector did not pay enough salary to support an urban family at even a subsistence level (Hope, 2000: 72).The Somalian civil servants in this example are left with two choices: survival and staying away from corruption.Many of them as the example showed went for corruption instead of staying away from corruption and risking the consequence which could spell doom for them and their families.
In fact, this kind of example and similar situations can actually create a serious moral problem for determining the morality of corruption. For if we accept as some scholars such as (Yahaya, 2013 and Mukundi, 2014) argue, that there are hierarchies of moral values and that the preservation of human life is at the apex of these values, the question becomes which of the two values is more important:
survival or staying away from corruption? I should answer survival and I believe that African moral principle which places a lot of premium on the value of human life would agree with me on this. Nevertheless, before taking this sort of moral position on issue that concerns corruption, there is a serious need to ensure that someone‟s survival is really on threat. It would also be necessary to place the condition of the civil servant in question, in perspective to that of the other members of the society. If the society is so poor to the extent that every member of
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the society is also striving for survival, to become corrupt in order to survive will amount to injustice against the other members who are striving to eke out a living.
Very similar to poor remuneration is the issue of the high cost of living, which, has been identified as one of the major causes of corruption in Africa. Where the cost of living is very high, it becomes a problem and a very tempting situation for the poorly paid civil servant who has to compete in the market with the business class.
To cope with the challenges in his immediate family, in that of his extended family and even the community, may actually force the person to be involved in corrupt activities. Amujiri confirms that, “with this, the civil servant keeps going and the society survives revolt. That is why you hardly see a policeman or a custom officer and immigration personal complaining of non-payment of salaries no matter the cost of living” (Amujiri, 2002: 71). Amujiri is indirectly saying here that police and custom officers unlike most civil servants do not depend on their salaries to survive.
The nature of their work in most African societies gives them direct access to bribery and that is why one hardly sees any police or custom officer complaining of low remuneration.
Another major cause of corruption is greed. Nwokereke Eze pointed it out clearly when he opined that “another ugly catalyst for the emergence of corruption...is also the dilemma of incessant greed for money, power and glory” (Eze, 2002: 6). People want to be rich. People adore rich men and rich women, regardless of the source of their wealth. The nature of man according Eze is “selfish and egoistic. He is motivated by selfish desires which require satisfaction if he is to be happy. For example, all his actions can be explained in terms of the attempts to gratify some desires such as the desirefor shelter, riches and so forth” (Eze, 2002: 6) .
Thus, the quest for material possessions to satisfy and gratify man‟s need pushes him to engage in any act that he thinks will satisfy his needs or wants. Because the wants of man are unlimited, and because some people are „infinitely‟ greedy, the satisfaction of one want will cause the birth of another want begging to be satisfied.
For example, if a man acquires a motor car through corrupt practices, he will need
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to fuel the car and maintain it. This will elicit more corruption, and the cycle will continue.
The problem with the civil servants that involve themselves in this type of corruption that results from greed is that they may not even care to know the effects of their actions on the people they are serving. Salha Kaitesi stresses that:
Most of the African leaders are greedy and power hungry. When they come into a leadership role they put themselves and their immediate family first rather than the interest of the country. They forget that they are there to serve us – the people who put them in that position in the first place and the same people who can bring them down too (Kaitesi, 2011:1)
This suggests that most of the civil servants or leaders who are involved in unethical practices do so as a result of greed to satisfy themselves and their immediate family. It is perhaps because of greed that some of the African leaders over-stay their welcome in public office. According to Nwachukwu, it is the thirst from endless accumulation of wealth that makes some African leader‟s loot the national treasury and keep it safe in overseas banks, to the detriment of the masses of their nations (Nwachukwu, 2002: 100).
In May, 1997, according to George Ayittey, The French Weekly Newspaper, in May published these stolen assets of African rulers:
General Sani Abacha of Nigeria – 120 billion FF (or $20 billion);
former Ivorian President H. Boigny - 35 billion FF (or $6 billion);
General Ibrahim Babangida of Nigeria – 30 billion FF (or $5 billion);
the late President Mobutu of Zaire – 22 billion FF (or $4 billion);
President Mouza Traore of Mali - 10.8 billion FF (or $2 billion).Others names mentioned by the French weekly were President Henri Bedie of Ivory Coast – 2 billion FF (or $300 million); President Denis N‟gnesso of Congo – 1.2 billion FF (or
$200 million); President Omar Bongo of Gabon – 0.5 billion FF (or
$80 million); President Paul Biya of Cameroon- 450 million FF (or
$70 million); President Haite Mariam of Ethiopia- 200 million FF (or
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$30 million) and President Hissene Habre of Chad – 20 million FF (or $3 million) (Ayittey, 2002).
This quotation goes a long way to instatiate this thesis submission above that greed is one of the basic factors that contribute to corruption, especially among the rulling class in Africa. The amounts provided by the documentation are staggering and one begins to wonder to what extent some African leaders are ready to go to satiate their insatiable greed at the expense of their people.
One other important factor that causes corruption is the collapse of moral values in African states. Lack of moral conscience by civil servants has indeed contributed a lot to corruption. According to Chukwudum Okolo “it is increasingly the conviction of many today that the black man or rather; the African need not go beyond himself in search of the roots of his problems. This is because the African condition is created by Africans themselves” (Okolo, 1994: 6),. Okolo is saying that incomparison with traditional African societies, there is a decline in moral values among Africans today; the decline has helped corruption to be on the increase.
Hence, most civil servants in Africa are no longer striving after higher moral values such as honesty, personal integrity, harmonious life, patriotism and so on as was the case in the past. It is obvious that without such moral values in the public sector and the general public in Africa, corruption will continue to rise.
Another cause of corruption in Africa is an ostentatious life style, which according to Nwachukwu, is one of causes of corruption in Africa. He explains that some civil servants have very high tastes in life and like to imitate those people in the society who live ostentatiously. Such civil servants would like to join those who have the best cars in the world, live in one of the best houses in the world, but do not have enough money for these things. It is in a bid to satisfy themselves of every need that they will become involved in corrupt activities (Nwachukwu, 2002: 101). Even whenacivil servant‟s salary is not low; he is likely to involve himself in corrupt activities once he decides to enjoyan ostentatious lifestyle.
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Agreeing with Nwachukwu, Faruk describes African society as an exhitionist society and African leaders as exhibitionists. Faruk believes that exhibitionism which he thinks is inherent in Africans has some connection with African value of communal life. According to him, an important aspect of African communal living is that it encourages a very high level of interaction between members of the same community. In this type of situation, everybody knows everybody and their worth in terms of economic values. The outcome is competition and showing off of what one has making the community and communal life a battle groud for the exhibition of wealth and power (Faruk, 2012: 18-20).
Moving from here, Faruk went on to argue that most African join certain professions, especially politics not because of the desire to serve their people but to acquire power and make their influence felt in the society. What makes it worst, according to him, is the power and influence that money willed in the modern world. To acquire this money in order to make his influence felt in his community, an average African will stop at nothing short stealing a nation or the world if possible dry. Faruk sums his argument with the insistent that with this type of mindset, its is difficult to figure out how anyone can begin to control corruption when the people involved in corruption are the same people who are saddled with the responsibility of controlling it (Faruk, 2012: 18-20). While one may find it difficult going along with Faruk on everything he said about Africans and corruption, especially his submission that African leaders are born exhibitionists, it will be very hard to disagree that exhibitionist life-style contributes to corruption as he pointed out here.
The lack of exemplary leadership is another cause of corruption. Lack of exemplary leadership implies that the leaders who are supposed to be showing an example through good governance are not doing so, instead, they are doing the opposite.
Corruption will be even greater where the leadership encourages it, as was the case with, the then, Zairean President Mobutu. According to David Gould:
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The official ethic of the clique in control of the state and its bureaucracy was contained in President Mobutu‟s Kinshasa speech of May 29, 1976. Not only did he admit that administrative corruption was the rule; he actually encouraged it: if you want to steal, steal a little cleverly, in a nice way. Only if you steal so much as to become rich overnight you will be caught (Gould, 1980:xii).
Lack of good leadership in many African states is a sign that the leadership is not interested in the affairs of the country. When there is good leadership, the people will rejoice and will enjoy the democracy dividends. According to Kempe Hope
“when leadership is not ethical it provides encouragement for corruption to occur”
(Hope, 2000: 22). In the traditional African system, leaders were very much concerned with the legacy they would leave behind, for the immortalisation of their names (Gbenda, 2002:205), but in the modern society, this is no longer the case.
Leaders in modern African society are rather more concerned about wealth and more wealth. Lack of exemplary leadership in some African states has even taught people the lesson that to be honest and hardworking in the public sector is not the best approach to life.
Again, it has been observed by some authors such as Kenneth Dye that corruption can occur as a result of a corrupt judiciary in a country. A corrupt judiciary means that the legal and institutional mechanisms designed to curb corruption, however well targeted, efficient, or honest, will remain crippled. There is mounting evidence of wide-spread judiciary corruption in many parts of the world, including Africa (Dye, 2007: 308). This implies that with a corrupt judiciary in any country, corruption will be on the increase. In this instance, Rose-Ackerman argues that,
“politically dependent judiciary can facilitate high-level corruption. When the judiciary is part of the corrupt system, the wealthy and the corrupt operate with impunity, confident that a well-placed payoff will deal with any legal problem”
(Rose-Ackerman, 1999: 151). This suggests that the wealthy people in the society will not be given deserving punishments when they are involved in corrupt practices.
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Corruption may occur as it is usually difficult for some people to accept that they are on a wrong track for fear that otherswill make a mockery of them. Hence, Robert Neild admits that another cause of corruption is esprit de corps (the attitude to protect what is our own):
We don‟t like to admit that there is anything wrong in the school, the college, the army, the civil service, the Judiciary or the country to which we belong because to do so would be to blemish the reputation of that institution and therefore our own standing in the world (Neild, 2002:8).
It can thus be assumed that what causes corruption in some countries is that people finds it difficult to admit that they are at fault. For instance, if a civil servant fails to admit that there is wrong in receiving bribes from the public, the receipt of bribes will not stop.
Another major cause of corruption is a lack of accountability by civil servants.
According to Mafunisa “accountability is an obligation to explain and justify the actions of the bearer of the responsibility to perform an accepted duty” (Mafunisa, 2000: 52). Corruption in the public sector will continue to rise if civil servants are not held accountable. Public accountability means that civil servants are to be held responsible for their actions in government. Public accountability should not be held lightly in the public services, because citizens are always eager to know what is happening in the government, and since the civil servants are the implementers of public policies, they ought to be accountable for their official actions to their superiors, the courts and the public (Ayee, 1998: 10) Where there is a lack of public accountability in the government, it is unlikely that there will be good governance, as this is a central requirement of good governance. Lack of good accountability in the public sector makes the government irresponsible and thus provides opportunities for corruption. This lackin the public service could amount to serious criticisms by citizens, which would aid in further corruption (Hope, 2000:19).
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A lack of monitoring and supervision in the government offices may, in no small measure, contribute to corruption by some civil servants. If the officials are not closely monitored, it becomes difficult to ascertain how they are carrying out their duties. According to Mahesh Purohit:
The absence of measures designed to maintain the integrity of staff – such as the promotion and enforcement of ethical standards, merit-based recruitment and promotion procedures, and regular staff rotation schemes to prevent the creation of lucrative networks – increase the likelihood of staff indulging in corrupt activities (Purohit, 2007:257).
If civil servants are not well checked, some of them may not desist from making use of the public fund for their personal interests. Kanyane says that top civil servants are prone to misuse public funds and materials in order to serve their own interests when they operate in secrecy and are not bound to publicly report on their activities (Kanyane, 2000: 11-12). This shows that there is every tendency for corruption when civil servants are not monitored. So, monitoring and constant supervision would in no small measure, be very useful in curbing corruption.
Kanyane suggests that government should introduce an office of censor as a monitoring device to operate independently in the public sector. This monitoring device, he says, should consist of a manageable group of highlyqualified censors who are knowledgeable and conversant in public administration and performance management. This will help to strictly monitor the performance of every official and report back to the head of the public service commission (PSC).The essence of this, is to make sure that the regulators and the regulated are under control and are committed to public service (Kanyane, 2000:21). Whatever method that is used, it is necessary for there to be an official who will ensure compliance, to ensure that all civil servants are properly checked.
Another cause of corruption in Africa is the lack of an effective ethics programme on corruption. According to Dye an ethics programme is important because it addresses fraud and corruption in a comprehensive fashion that goes beyond a
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simple code of conduct. Governments that want to help employees make the correct ethical choices relating to environmental, legal, and social decisions in the public sector may consider establishing an effective programme. Through courses, policies, ethics call lines, and other means, such programs help employees align bureaucratic practices with government values and beliefs (Dye, 2007: 318-319).
This ethics programme is very necessary, as it can be stated that some people seem to be ignorant of what constitutes corruption in the public sector.
Again, the rate at which graduates are produced from institutions of higher learning, in most of the countries in Africa is increasing yearly and, it seems, at such a rate, it will be very difficult for qualified graduates to be employed. The Economic Report on Africa says that:
While several reasons can be given for high rates of unemployment, it is clear that African economies were not able to create enough jobs to employ the growing labour force because the sectors that anchor economic growth tend to be capital-intensive enclave sectors (Economic Report on Africa, 2010:13).
The solution the Economic Report offers is that the government should try to create jobs for the large numbers of graduates that are coming out from the various institutions yearly. If there were enough jobsfor the youth, according to the Report, the rate of corruption would definitely not be at such a high rate. The assumption here is that, because there are not enough jobs for candidates to apply for, those in charge of selection will normally try to select their relations first before thinking about others.I agree with the Economic Report that unemployement causes corruption. However, I have to add contrary to the assumption of the Report that corruption does not occur because many people are graduated yearly from African university. It rather occurs because corruption starves African societies of the fund that would have been used to create employements where these graduates would have worked.