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questionnaires. The two sets of data were merged into one overall interpretation after making sure that all the variables were fully catered for.
The triangulation design is quite handy particularly when examining people’s experiences and perspectives on a given subject. In this case it was quite amenable to the use of both the qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. In my study, participants’ views were expressed statistically (quantitatively) as well as in words (qualitatively) in order to ensure that the study is not starved from critical issues which might not be regarded important with other methods, (Burton et al 2008). Miles and Huberman, (1994) give credence to the qualitative method for its ability to provide data which is rich and contextual in detail. Berg, (2001), observes that heavily depending on quantitative data had the ripple effects of reducing people’s actions into numeric and statistical indices thereby losing sight of the social aspect of the world. However, Briggs and Coleman, (2002), argue that moving away from the analysis of given, measurable and objectively verifiable facts to the analysis of thoughts, feelings, expressions and opinions which were open to debate required the researcher to give parameters of what to include and not to include.
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sufficiency of collected data by looking at its richness and thickness and not necessarily the huge volumes which may have less substance.
In my study I sought the participation of 60 participants disaggregated as 20 from the Civil Service, 20 from State Owned Enterprises / parastatals and another 20 from Civil Society Organizations drawn from in and around Harare in Zimbabwe. All the sixty (60) participants responded to questionnaires. I chose 30 participants from the 60 to take part in interviews. The 30 interviewees were selected in the following manner; each of the six institutions in the aforesaid economic sectors, (Civil service, Parastatal and Civil society) contributed 5 participants. This implies that each economic sector provided ten interviewees to make a total of 30 while each of the three economic sectors contributed 20 participants giving a total of 60. All the 60 participants completed the questionnaire while one half of them participated in both questionnaire and interviews.
I employed simple convenience sampling for all the participants where any first ten participants per institution were issued with questionnaires and 5 of them participated in interviews. It was my feeling that the thrust of my study needed participants from defined institutions who could give their personal as well as institutional experiences and perspectives regarding the role of public education in combating corruption. According to Bryman, (2008) convenience sampling implies the purposeful selection of participants due to their relevance to the topic. Thus, the purpose of my study required participants from middle management and below who had interest in taking part in the study.
I found it justifiable to work with a chore number of 60 participants after considering the sensitivity of issues surrounding the topic on anti-corruption in Zimbabwe. My resolve was to deal with a manageable sample, reduce on making several trips and opportunities of interfacing with participants as a way to allay fear and unnecessary suspicion among the employees in those institutions. I also discovered that by interviewing some of the participants who completed the questionnaire, the strategy helped me to probe on certain grey areas which were either ambiguous or ineffectively attended to in the questionnaire.
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I deliberately chose to investigate the Civil service mainly because it is largely shared that government employees were the most corrupt in Zimbabwe. Most citizens believe that poor service delivery had become rampant and was mainly caused by greedy civil servants who expected to be bribed to do their work, (Balogun,2012). This was an allegation which was interesting to pursue in this study.
On the other hand, the contributions of participants from parastatals would be very important in that they always complained that civil servants were in the habit of mismanaging the resources they gave to government. They also alleged that in most cases Civil servants converted the resources to their personal use. While this may be the case, government was alleging that the parastatals played a significant role in fueling corruption in the civil service as the individuals from this sector boasted of having the money to bribe the poorly remunerated government workers, (Mutondoro and Gweshe, 2015).
The suspicion could be worse if the government of Zimbabwe goes ahead with the Finance Minister’s view to cut salaries and tax allowances for all civil servants, (The Herald 9 September 2016). The civil service was afraid that the salary cuts and introduction of taxes on their allowances would erode their incomes, something that might motivate the commission of corruption offences, at a time when corrupt activities were on the upward trajectory. Employees in parastatals were known to be better remunerated in Zimbabwe as compared to civil servants. As such, the employees from the private sector have been blamed for exercising unwarranted impatience when approaching public service points like hospitals, police road blocks, institutions of learning and others where they bribed their way in broad day light, (Transparency International, 2015). In schools, there was a general belief that students with parents who worked in the parastatals were better preferred to those whose parents worked in government departments. Heads of schools were said to be benefitting from food hampers, fuel coupons, monetary gifts and other forms of bribes collected from parents who fell on each other to thank them for ‘taking care’ of their children at school.
The Civil Society organizations always claim that they speak on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe and they exert pressure on government to act responsibly, (Giddens, 2011). However, the government of Zimbabwe claims that the worst corruption was
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perpetrated by Non-Governmental Organizations who in most cases bribed the unsuspecting citizens on the pretext that they bring about development or alleviate poverty amongst the people, (Tsodzo, 2014). In Zimbabwe, the story of Civil Society Organizations would not be completely explained without mention of how they have been alleged to be sponsoring opposition political parties in which government responded heavy handedly through deregistering some of them, (Mutondoro and Gweshe, 2015). It had been alleged that Non-Governmental Organizations used a myriad of tactics to corruptly sway the political votes towards those political parties sympathetic to them. In order to lure the electorate, they were believed to be educating the public and rewarding them with food and school fees for their children.
The government classified such actions by Non-Governmental Organization as a
‘regime change agenda’. The government responded through producing a new policy that compelled organizations to go through government structures if they needed to give any assistance to the public. I found these accusations and counter accusations quite important in this study as all the concerned parties were given an opportunity to give their experiences and perspectives on how public education had helped to mitigate corruption in Zimbabwe.
In this study, I selected participants as individuals, but I also expected them to link their contributions with their respective organizations so that they also represented the organizations they worked for.