Corruption: Definition and Concept Manifestations and Typology in the

Africa Context.

A presentation

By Dr. Abubakar H. Kargbo

At

The Training for Members of parliament and members of Civil Society from
English speaking West Africa: Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, and Sierra Leone

Bitumani Hotel
Aberdeen, 4th – 8th September
2006.
I want to first of all commend the National Accountability Group and the Africa
Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption and its Sierra Leone Chapter for
organizing this training for members of Parliament and members of Civil Society from
Anglophone West Africa. Indeed, this training, particularly in promoting the fight against
Corruption is apt, one cannot therefore overemphasize its importance in ensuring good
governance. I want to take this opportunity also to thank the National Accountability
Group for extending an invitation to me to make a presentation in this all important
training session for both Parliamentarian and members of Civil Society.

My topic for presentation is entitled Corruption: Definition and Concepts; Manifestation

and Typology in the Africa context. The main thrust of the paper will be centered on the
financing of political parties and elections as a recipe for corruption; contracts and public
works as interface for corrupt practices, and the consequences of corruption in the Socio
–economic, political and institutional domains.

The paper will be divided into three parts with an introduction.

The Introduction will deal with the definition of the concept Corruption. An attempt will
be made to look at various definitions of corruption and a working definition will be
provided to help us have a better perspective as to what corruption presupposes.

The first part will look at the financing of political parties and elections. A critical
analysis will be made aimed at bringing out the negative impact of such a practice on
good governance in the Africa continent. Perhaps, the need for political parties and
elections to be funded by an independent body or even from the National Budget will be
looked at.

The second part will take a critical look at contracts and public works as an interface for
corruption practices. An attempt will be made to assess the cost of corruption in
construction and infrastructure as a whole. The effects on governance of payments to
obtain major contracts and concession will be analysed.

The third part will contain an in-depth analysis of the consequences of corruption in the
body politic of a state, including the Socio-economic, Political and institutional domains.
This part will also include the consequences of corruption as a whole on the governance
process of Africa States.

The conclusion will be a critical synthesis of the three parts and the way forward.

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Definition of the Concept Corruption.

There is usually the difficulty to define concepts, because of their relativity one cannot
put forward a dogmatic definition of the concept. However, that is not to say that we must
not strive to put up an acceptable definition of corruption. We therefore need to
determine what corruption is all about, so as to get a better perspective of it, identify it in
our societies and outline ways and means of combating it. The need for an operational
definition been critical if we are to agree on what constitutes corruption can therefore be
overemphasized.

Over the years we might have come across certain actions on the part of individuals,
groups etc that we perceived as corrupt actions in both a generalized and specified
environment. This however, does not constitute an overall perspective that would warrant
an accepted definition of corruption. This is one of the most formidable obstacles to the
study of corruption. According to Transparcy International source book 2000, tilled
confronting corruption, The elements of A National Integrity system, by Jeremy Pope,
Corruption is defined simply the misuse of entrusted power for private benefit.

According to the Report of the Common Wealth Expert Group on Good Governance and
the Elimination of Corruption, in the book Fighting Corruption – promoting Good
Governance, produced by the Common Wealth Secretariat 2000, Corruption is generally
defined as the abuse of public office for private gain. This definition has been encaged
because of the widened scope of corruption to cover the abuse of all offices of trust for
private gain, whether in the public or private sectors. Corruption manifest itself in various
ways and it is useful to distinguish between Personal Corruption (motivated by personal
gain) and Political Corruption (motivated by political gain). A further distinction can be
made between individual corruption and organizational or institutional corruption. In the
context of the state, corruption most often refers to criminal or otherwise unlawful
conduct by Government Agencies, or by officials of these organizations acting in the
course of their employment.

Joseph Nye in his Article titled Corruption and Political Development: A Cost-Benefit
Analysis, American political science review, Vol 61, No2, June 1967, defines corruption
as a behavior which deviates from the normal duties of a public role because of private –
regarding (family, close private clique), pecuniary or status gain, or violates rules against
the exercise of private-regarding influence. This includes such behavior as bribery (use of
reward to prevent the judgment of a person in a position of trust); nepotism (bestowal of
patronage by reason of ascriptive relationship rather than merit); and misappropriation
(illegal appropriation of public resources for private-regarding use).

In all the definitions of corruption given so far, it could be observed that corruption is
seen as among others, the abuse of public office, the abuse of all offices of trust,
misappropriation, private gain etc.

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Corruption operates within a system and can even be said to be a product of an economic
system, such as capitalism which has as its political philosophy of democratic pluralism.
Most of the African states now prefer to practice democratic pluralism, characterized by
multiparty system and a government in power which has won the majority of votes on the
one hand, and an opposition on the other. This scenario is against the backdrop of the
normative element in the nation of corruption which remains crucial. Which explains
Lord Acton`s well-known aphorism, that “power tends to corrupt and absolute power
corrupts absolutely”. It is the assumption that democratic, including ethnical constraints
on the power of rules will reduce the tendency to corruption, which could be argued, has
only partially been borne out in practice in Africa today. For it is widely known by
citizens of African states that neither the existence of checks and balances nor the
insistence on ethical performance on the part of Governments in Africa necessarily leads
to honest Government serving the common interest. Corruption could therefore be also
defined normatively, as a deviation from the public good.

Again, the expansion of democracy, itself normatively defined as government of the

people, by the people and for the people, in Abraham Lincoln’s famous phrase, has
enhanced that definition, by sharpening the distinction between what is public from what
is private. This is against the background that in a democracy, politicians become
‘people’s representatives’ and bureaucrats as ‘public servants’ precisely because these
functions are deemed to be conducive to the common good. Corruption therefore
becomes the improper behavior. It is the abuse of public office for private gain that
constitutes corruption. To distinguish between public and private role and interests is
however not as easy one. In every society particular in Africa the process of making and
maintaining this distinction constitutes new challenges. There are cases in Africa where,
political leaders, politicians, public servant, political parties etc becoming vehicles for the
pursuit of personal or partisan goals in ways that are contrary to public policy, illegal and
even unconstitutional. This could be seen during the late 1980s, during the National
conferences of the early 1990s and the election campaigns. Africa had been characterized
by impunity, but for the emergence of the free press in some African Countries.

Africa is still today in a dilemma of how to separate private from public interests.
Primordial sentiments still characterized most of the continent and as such is making it
difficult to draw a line between primordial public which is the indigenous sphere defined
in moral, ethnic and pre-colonial geographic terms, and the overlapping ‘civic’ public,
amoral and to some extent abstract, inherited from the colonial state (Governance and the
Economy in Africa. Tools for Analysis and Reform of Corruption IRIS, University of
Maryland, 1996, p.9)

Understanding the nature of corruption will be superficial if the impact of political

economy on it is not fully analysed.

It could be observed that democratic pluralism, capitalism and the liberal economic
theory of the free market which are models for African Governance today are by nature
recipes for corruption. This is not to say that there is no corruption in totalitarian
societies, in fact it is worse in the latter case. According to John Girling in his book

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Corruption Capitalism and Democracy, the conditions of modern democracy have given
rise, specifically to corporate political funding and, generally, to the penetration of
market values, became ‘public’ office has expanded greatly, in regard to the function of
politicians and the scope of government activity, which requires an elaborate centralized
administration, financing important public works and welfare programmes; while the
competitive growth of political parties involves increasingly costly electoral contests.
This also increases the opportunities for private gain, which becomes legitimate under
capitalism.

It could be agreed therefore that corruption reflects the clash of values between the
political and the economic. The fact remains that ‘public service’ is the raison d’etre of
officials to serve the common interest, as defined by the mandate if the electoral majority
and its political leadership. The irony of the situation however, the raison d’etre of the
capitalist system in that of private profit, derived from the operation of the competitive
market. Market values guide behavior. In this scenario therefore, buying voters,
legislators and state officials is considered ‘good business’ if it produces cost effective
results. From the stand point of democracy based on the sovereignty of the people, this is
tantamount to corruption.

In reality however, one will not fail to observe that the economic system has an
undeniable impact on the political, which in democratic theory it should not have, but the
other way round. Corruption therefore becomes another way of bridging the gap between
theory and practice through establishing either legal or ‘acceptable’ (informal) channels
of influence between wealth and power.

Financing of political parties and elections as already established is rooted in both the
capitalist and democratic systems and makes corruption a part of the political system.

Part 1
Financing of political parties and elections as entrance gate for corruption.

Financing of political parties and elections in Africa today has become a common
practice. This is against the background that political parties are characterized by
inadequate funds and resources, inadequate and weak structures; poverty of political
supporters, ethnic, regional and tribal divide, lack of cogent ideology etc

Without any gainsaying, political parties and elections in Africa are to a very large extent
dependent on other source of finance other than their membership. To quote Thomas O’
Neill once a speaker of the House in the United Satates, he observed that there were four
parts to any campaign; these included the candidate, the issues of the candidate, the
campaign organization, and the money to run the campaign with. He stressed that without
money one should forget about the other three. The fact remains that money will be
needed to pay for office space, staff, salaries, bills, travel expenses, advertising in the
mass media etc.

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It is argued that to win an election be it in Africa or in the developed world, the need to
raise money particular in a scenario where the minority party or parties feel they are at a
disadvantage and therefore, need more money to ensure a level playing field, cannot be
over emphasized, However, since parties in Africa are usually poor, even in terms of
funding of party activities, they usually solicit funding from agencies that usually impact
the parties and elections negatively. If supported by big businesses, then the parties and
those that are elected will be influenced. Such a senario will no doubt affect the
democratic aspects parties and elections ought to uphold.

It is for such a reasons aimed at good governance in the area of financing of political
parties and elections that strict camp laws are been enacted to regulate campaign
spending and contributions.

Most of the Africa States have such laws whether as part of the constitution or specific
Parliamentary Act. For example, in Sierra Leone section 12 of the political parties Act
2002, stipulates that parties upon the receipt of their final certificate of registration
submits to the political parties Registration Commission, detail information about their
accounts disclosing their source of funding assets and expenditure including all
contributions, donations or pledges of contributions or donation whether in cash or in
kind. According to section 19 of the Act, the source of funding of a political party shall
be limited to contributions or donations whether in cash or in kind. But as already
established, the poverty of political membership makes for corrupt practices in that
domain.

Indeed, financing of political parties and elections constitute an entrance gate for
corruption because among other things, both the party and those elected will be
manipulated by those who paid the piper. Dancing to tune will entails, among others, the
awarding of contacts, concessions, employment and other opportunities to those who
sponsored the political parties and elections.

Contracts and public works: An interface for corrupt practices.

Awarding of contracts have two corrupt implications, one is that contacts could be given
as a result of political party influence from the government in power to the contractor
who is also part of the political system. On the other hand however, the contractor in
order to get a contract will give a bribe, while at the some time the contract will be
inflated to line the pockets of both the giver and receiver of the contract. In such an
arrangement there is a loot of public money.

The other implication which is of significance is the impact of such contracts infested
with corruption on public works. This is usually devastating, characterized by poor
implementation of the said project as stated by Raj Kamal Jha in his article in the Global
Corruption Report 2005 by Transparency, procurement had been completely manipulated
and hijacked by contractors, and that quality had been compromised by sub-contracting
work to small contractors. He went to argue that works are usually being awarded at high
cost and contractors are assuring the best of quality in the execution of projects.
However, when it comes to the actual execution of works, it is found that most of the

6
works are being sublet or sub-contracted to small petty contractors who are not all
capable of executing such big projects. These petty contractors are bringing poor
equipment and materials, giving a big setback to the progress and quality of work.

As citizens of the various Anglophone West African States such a phenomenon as

described above is not new. Despite the existence of tender board procedures in each of
our countries, there is usually a tendency to circumvent then all in the hope of receiving
kickbacks.

In grand corruption according to the UNDP publication on tilled corruption and Good
Governance, USA 1997, p.24 when the government is a buyer or a contractor, there are
several reasons to pay off officials. First, a firm may pay to be included in the list of pre
qualified bidders and to restrict the size of the list. Second it may pay for inside
information. Third, bribes may induce officials to structure the bidding specifications so
that the corruption firm is the only qualified supplier. Forth, a firm may pay to be selected
as the winning contractor. Fifth, once a fine has been selected as the contractor, it may
pay to set inflated prices or to skimp on quality. Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler in their
article entitled The economic cost of corruption in infrastructure, in the 2005 Global
Corruption Report, state that it is a common scenario in Africa for budget decision
makers that are corrupt to skimp the budget towards infrastructure spending so as to
increase opportunities for corruption. If roads are more capital intensive than primary
education, the budget may be skewed towards roads and away from education. And if
there is more opportunity for corruption in road construction than in road maintenance,
then roads may be built, allowed to fall apart, and then rebuilt.

Consequences of Corruption

Without doubt corruption has a negative impact on Socio-economic, political and

institutional domains of the body politic of African states. Its impact is not only limited to
the size of the payments involved, but the very process of extorting and giving bribes has
distortionary effects that are socio-economic and political, even in terms of economic
growth.

Despite the arguments on the part of certain authors that certain South East Asian
economies have over the years, achieved spectacular economic growth, even though
corruption is rampant in those states. However, most authors hold the view that
corruption as a species of governance failure impacts economic growth negatively.
Among other things, corruption does not alleviate the effect of existing administrative
distortions as some have suggested. For example, bureaucratic delays are neither
mitigated nor circumvented by the effects of corruption. Infact corruption reinforces
bureaucratic delays and thus is not a cure. Its impact on the economy cannot therefore be
over emphasized. Corruption has a more distortionary impact on the economy than
taxation, because of the need to keep corruption secret. Efforts to avoid detection and
punishment cause corruption to be more distortionary than taxation.

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Corruption slows down investment and economic growth, the fact that bribery contracts
are unlike regular contracts that are enforceable.

Corruption raises the cost of doing business. Officials may introduce certain conditions to
ensure that they get bribes, through delays and unnecessary requirements.

Corruption discourages new ideas and innovations.

Corruption leads to the decline in real per capita incomes, inflation, a widening budget
and balance of payment deficits, and declining official production and exports:

Corruption promotes inequality among firms

Corruption leads to a reduction in the quality of products.

Corruption diverts funds from investment and other production activities.

Politically, corruption leads to a loss of faith on the part of the people and thus its
legitimacy and power. Political equality and democratic values are undermined.

Corruption strengthens bad governance, through the absence of the rule of Law, respect
for human rights, no accountability, and transparency.

Corruption has also led to massive neglect of the social sector, which has substantially
decreased the quality of human resources in African states over the years. The provision
of educational and health opportunities have been limited, this impacting negatively on
the quality of life, labour, productivity, incomes, innovativeness, competitiveness, and
poverty reduction in Africa States

Donor’s creditability has also been eroded. There have been instances in which donors
have been critical as to the commitment of Africa State in handling corruption in their
respective states.

Corruption has also led to the weakness of structure and institutions crucial for better
governance.

Generally speaking, corruption is a species of governance failure and can only be

mitigated when Africa states are committed to ensure Good Governance. Existing
structures and institutions such as Anti-Corruption Commissions and Bureaus should be
strengthened and the national Campaigns against corruption intensified in African
Countries. Unless and until Africans are committed, corruption is the cancer that will eat
up all the socio-economic and political achievements of the continent and Africa might
not see the light of day.

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References.
1. Girling John 1997, Corruption, Capitalism and Democracy, Routledge, London
2. Fighting Corruption: Promoting Good Governance, Commonwealth Secretariat,
2000 London.
3. Corruption and Good Governance, Discussion paper 3, UNDP New York, 1997.
4. Global Corruption Report 2003, Transparency International, London.
5. Global Corruption Report 2005, Transparency International, London.
6. Jeremy Pope 200, Comforting Corruption: The elements of a National Integrity
System, Transparency International, Berlin, Germany.
7. Peter Deleon. 1993 Thinking about Political Corruption, U.S.A..