President Mugabe’s announcement that there will be zero tolerance to corruption is welcome and deserves everyone’s support to ensure that the scourge is contained and/or completely eradicated.We also welcome the planned, independent National Prosecuting Authority which should hit the ground running. It would be good if the strict code of ethics and declaration of assets planned for Anti-Corruption Commission commissioners can be extended to all holders of public office. This is because corruption is frequently difficult to detect, difficult to prove and regrettably easy to allege. Where assets have been declared, it is easy to assess assets accumulated against one’s earnings and sources of income. By corruption we mean more than the precise legal definition of taking or offering a bribe; in general terms it usually means abusing one’s position to enrich oneself through extortion and fraud as well, again things that are easy to allege but difficult to prove in court, especially if someone is smart enough to find a legal loophole. President Mugabe made it clear on Tuesday that the Government will not tolerate corruption. No matter how powerful someone thinks he is, or how many “friends” he thinks he has in Government, allegations will be investigated and the truth found. And if those allegations are proved, then the person will no doubt go to jail. So the intent is there for zero tolerance. But often more is needed. The police, and anyone else tasked with investigating a charge of corruption, need adequate skills and resources to build a case, or reach the conclusion that the allegations were unfounded. This is because secret crimes like corruption are often extraordinarily difficult to prove, it often coming down to one person’s word against another’s, and sometimes a refusal by anyone to give any information at all. After all, people paying for special favours are unlikely to complain, as they have also committed a crime, if the deal goes sour. Historically in some jurisdictions the authorities have been forced to find alternative charges, such as convicting people of not paying taxes on dubious income, rather than of obtaining that income through criminal activity. With allegations easy to make, we need more than just systems to catch the guilty. We also need to clear the names of the innocent. One way of attacking the problem is to set up systems that make corruption very difficult or very expensive. We see this at the lowest levels with some of the strange bureaucratic methods we all endure when we want some Government service. But we need to realise that the multiple queueing at the passport office, the double queueing when we want to register a new car and other similar irritations are not there to make life difficult for the honest person, although they do, but to make dishonesty impossible. When many people are involved in a process, the odds that all are dishonest becomes vanishingly low, and all it often takes is one whistleblower. Tenders and auctions not just ensure that the lowest prices pertain, but also establish very transparent procedures that make it very difficult for any pair of corrupt suppliers and procurement officers to collude. Evaluating tenders in both the private and public sectors almost always involves at least one committee, and quite often more than one, say, a technical team and a financial team. Again having a number of signatures at the bottom of a recommendation minimises the risks. All these procedures are cumbersome, and every now and again someone says it would be more efficient to streamline them. Well it would but only if the streamliners were guaranteed honest. But none of these special procedures mean much, and investigations can be almost useless, unless there is a clear understanding that action will always be taken and will be supported. President Mugabe has made that very clear now. With support at that level, law enforcement agencies and officers can now pursue the hunt knowing that even the best-connected corrupt people cannot gain immunity—Herald
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 11:25:43 +0000
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