MS Zambia Newsletter June 2009

54% view public officials as corrupt in Zambia

The 2009 Global Corruption Barometer recently launched by Transparency International (TI) shows that Zambians have little faith in their officials and politicians.

By Transparency International Zambia

30. June 2009

This is the sixth edition of the Global Corruption Barometer. The 2009 Barometer highlights everyday experiences with bribery, people’s views on private sector corruption and corruption levels in six Institutions namely political parties, public officials/civil servants, parliaments/legislature, business, judiciary and media.73.132 people were interviewed in 69 countries and territories between October 2008 and February 2009.

In each country, the polling method was based on local conditions. Methods included face to face, telephone and on-line interviews. For the first time since the survey was started, this year, Zambia is among the seventeen countries that have been included in the 2009 Barometer. Other countries that are new to the 2009 Barometer include: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, El Salvador, Hungary, Iraq, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liberia, Mongolia, Morocco, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

When asked which of the six sectors/institutions they considered to be the single most corrupt, the general public most frequently identified political parties and the civil service, with 29 and 26 per cent respectively. At the lower end were the media and the judiciary with 6 and 9 per cent of the respondents seeing them as the single most corrupt institution.

For Zambia, the findings indicate that 54 per cent of the respondents viewed public officials and the civil service to be extremely corrupt, followed by the Judiciary at 39 per cent, political parties at 30 per cent, Business /private sector stood at 15 per cent while Parliament and the Media come in at the tail end at 13 and 6 per cent respectively.

The private sector uses bribes to influence public policy, laws and regulations, believed over half of those polled for 2009 GCB. The Barometer also found that half of respondents expressed a willingness to pay a premium to buy from corruption-free companies. However, the general public expressed willingness to actively support clean business. Valiant action by companies to continue strengthening their policies and practices, and to report more transparently on finances and interactions with government was now needed. 2009 GCB also found the poor to be disproportionately burdened by bribe demands and that government efforts to combat corruption were generally perceived as ineffective, in addition to high levels of perceived corruption in political parties, parliaments and the civil service.

The business-related findings of the Barometer send a powerful signal to the private sector and provide yet another incentive -in addition to the legal, reputational and financial risks of corruption- for companies to prove that they were clean and to communicate this clearly to the public.

Petty bribery and economic crisis in the world had punished the poor twice. The 2009 Barometer showed that the poorest families continued to be punished by petty bribe demands. Across the board, low-income respondents were more likely to be met with bribe demands than high-income respondents. Additionally, petty bribery was found to be on the rise in Venezuela, Ghana, Indonesia, Cambodia Bolivia, Senegal, Russia and Kenya, compounding the already difficult situation of low-income households, as jobs and income dwindle in the economic downturn.

Governmental anti-corruption efforts was seen as ineffective in the Barometer. Only three in ten respondents believed their government’s efforts to fight corruption were effective, although opinion in Sub-Saharan Africa was notably more positive than in other regions. Most of those polled also felt that existing channels for making corruption-related complaints were ineffective. Therefore, Governments must listen closely to what ordinary people were reporting or faced the consequences of an increasingly alienated and distrustful citizenry.

The tragically familiar stories of the 2009 Barometer were the negative perceptions of public institutions and government anti-corruption efforts, and low-income households saddled with petty bribe payments for ostensibly free services. New this year was the increasingly critical view of the private sector and a public motivated to pay a premium for clean business. The 2009 Barometer made it clear that both the private and public sectors had a great deal of work to do to win back the public trust.

Meanwhile, Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) said the Zambian Government must introduce anti-money laundering measures to eradicate safe havens for stolen assets, as prescribed by the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) to curb private sector corruption. Also, leading banking centers should explore the development of uniform expedited procedures for the identification, freezing and repatriation of the proceeds of corruption and clear escrow provisions for disputed funds where essential.

Presenting the speech to launch the 2009 TI Global Corruption Barometer on June 3, 2009 at the TIZ Secretariat, TIZ Chapter President Rueben Lifuka said judicial independence, integrity and accountability must be enhanced to improve the credibility of justice systems in the poorer countries.

Mr. Lifuka said judicial proceedings must not only be freed of political influence but rather judges themselves must be subjected to disciplinary rules, limited immunity and a code of judicial conduct to help ensure that justice was served.