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Polity
Published: 02 Apr 2007
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| Fraser-Moleketi: Global Forum V on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity (02/04/2007) | |
| Date: 02/04/2007 Source: Department of Public Service and Administration Title: Fraser-Moleketi: Global Forum V on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity Speech by the honourable Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Minister of Public Service and Administration, at the Global Forum V on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity, Johannesburg, South Africa Your Excellencies, Heads of State Ministers and Deputy Ministers Your Excellencies, ambassadors and high commissioners Heads of international organisations Distinguished guests Ladies and gentlemen All protocols observed Welcome to Global Forum V. South Africa is honoured to host the forum and to ensure that all of you are well received. We appreciate that so many of you have consciously chosen to participate in this global forum in spite of competing commitments. We look forward to the outcomes of this conference and are optimistic that our deliberations and discussions over the next four days will be highly productive. The importance of values and integrity Mahatma Gandhi once said: "The things that will destroy us are politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, knowledge without character, business without morality." In so saying he emphasises the importance of values and integrity in building sustainable social systems. The Ghanaian novelist Ayi Kwei Armah, in his first and best known novel 'The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born' describes the life of an unnamed rail worker who faces ongoing pressure from family and fellow workers to accept bribes and involve himself in corrupt activities. The other workers who accept bribes are able to build prosperous lives, while he and his family eke out a modest livelihood as a result of his honesty. In his daily struggles he sometimes views himself as a moral failure for not providing his family with the money that would allow them to fulfil their dreams. His honesty also turns him into a recluse and social misfit. In this superb novel, Armah takes the resentments of an embittered society and paints a broad canvas that serves as a strident critique of the impact of corruption on societies in general. Armah's anonymous anti-hero works in a dim, suffocating traffic control centre where he monitors the inconsistent routing of dilapidated trains he never sees. He has learned the dispiriting lesson that freedom from colonialism does not mean freedom from exploitation. He has learned that the interface between politics, bureaucracy and economy can bring about the crudest forms of corruption. He has learned that the corrosive hunger for money knows no ideology. Africa Forum and the African discourse on corruption A month ago almost 40 years after Armah wrote his novel, representatives of over 40 States and governments in Africa gathered in Ekurhuleni, South Africa, and asserted that Africans will be audacious enough to dream of a corrupt free continent, when as a prelude to this forum we hosted the Africa Forum on Fighting Corruption. What emerged from that forum was a consensus on a renewed multilateral approach to fighting corruption based on a common understanding of the importance of reasserting our common traditional egalitarian and democratic communal values of humanity, ubuntu and ujamaa. We believe that Africa forum has made a substantial contribution to the corruption/anti-corruption discourse. I would like to thank Commissioner Joiner for her invaluable contribution to the success of the Africa forum. We re-defined the discourse of corruption by going beyond the simple corrupter corrupted relationship and we consciously eschewed current approaches which focus solely on perceptions and blame. We recognised that we need to establish a system of measuring corruption which goes beyond perceptions and league tables that focus on bribe takers and that corruption is a global phenomenon which is rooted in history but its contemporary manifestations can be located in an understanding of colonialism, neo-colonialism and globalisation. We suggested that in the era of globalisation, many States have become increasingly vulnerable to the power of multinational corporations. Africa is determined to root out corruption and we decided to establish partnerships across the globe without any strings attached. As Africans we concurred that in developing a common understanding of corruption, it is critical to focus on the complex interface between the social, the political and the economic spheres of society. A broader conception and definition of corruption must recognise that corruption is multifaceted and takes place within all sectors of society as well as in the interface between the public, private and civil society sectors. One of the most significant contributions the African Forum made to the discourse on corruption is our insistence on hinging our fight against all forms of corruption on building integrity systems based on traditional communal, egalitarian and democratic principles. Traditional African society was forged on the basis of communal values. In the Nguni languages of southern Africa it is said that 'umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu,' "I am what I am because of who we all are." This value system contrasts markedly with the values of a rampant free market capitalism under globalisation with its emphasis on individual wealth acquisition. The values of ubuntu and ujamaa inform all of us of our humanity, they tell us that we are human by virtue of the mutual support we give one another. This is the key motive force in our fight against corruption. This is the spirit we have committed ourselves to in order to create a socially cohesive and inclusive Africa that is free of corruption. We all agreed we are defined by our relation to others and that we must subscribe to the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. What follows is that we individually, collectively and as nation states must be judged by what we do for others both in the public and private spheres. Let us be mindful in our deliberations at this global forum that we cannot develop by allowing a permissive environment for corruption to flourish. Corruption is inimical to development, it perpetuates inequality, increases wealth and asset gaps between rich and poor at national, regional, continental and global scales. It reproduces conditions of underdevelopment and poverty. It is morally wrong and offensive; it is illegal and cannot be tolerated. It must be eradicated and we must collectively dedicate ourselves to its eradication. Corruption is a direct impediment to global development. It also hampers our global efforts to instil sound political, socio-economic and corporate governance. Corruption is also fundamentally undemocratic; it undermines the legitimacy and credibility of democratically elected governments and of responsible and accountable civil servants. Under conditions of democracy, the State needs to take the lead in combating, preventing, managing and eliminating corruption. Corruption weakens democratic processes, public order and undermines the ability to deepen social, political and economic modernisation and reform. Corruption destroys trust and erodes both the sense of global citizenship and the sense of shared responsibility as well as national citizenship and the sense of social cohesion. Building national integrity systems The integrity of political, administrative and judicial systems is central in the construction of national integrity systems. Corruption is more likely to be found under conditions where policy failures have increased redistributive pressures and where judicial systems lack independence or are weak than where development policies have been successfully implemented by a meritocratic bureaucracy and where the judiciary is strong and independent. The deepening of democracy and the strengthening of governance institutions are likely to reduce corruption due to enhanced transparency, monitoring and accountability mechanisms. These are critical elements of national integrity systems that link values and principles of good governance with the institutional structures and practices that give effect to these values. A national integrity system's values must permeate the institutions, practices and principles of the State and civil society including the corporate sector. These values include accountability, transparency, equity, efficiency, developmentalism and fundamental rights and freedoms including freedom of speech, access to information, democracy and participation. The successful practice and implementation of a national integrity system is predicated on strong leadership and the ability of leaders to set a vision, based on the values of the society. Governments can create a national integrity system infrastructure with laws systems and structures but ultimately leadership must voluntarily submit to a higher code of probity, which goes beyond strictly legal prescriptions. This submission to a moral code guarantees the integrity and purpose of institutions of good governance and democracy. Ethical behaviour cannot be assumed. Specific measures and institutions to safeguard integrity and to promote ethics are required. The absence of these measures and institutions or their ineffectiveness or manipulation paves the way for unethical behaviour, including corruption. Understanding corruption in a broader context Corruption has often been projected as an African and "developing south" phenomenon. Definitions of the problem have frequently been limited to the abuse or misuse of public power or resources for private benefit, thus focusing on the behaviour of politicians and those in the public service. Corruption and bribery have also repeatedly been used interchangeably ignoring the fact that bribery is a two way transaction involving both bribe givers and bribe takers. Particular cultures, societies or people have been depicted as being inherently corrupt. Solutions and strategies for combating corruption have been developed as apolitical, largely legalistic and technocratic interventions that are devoid of ideology and values. The result of this approach is that the role of the private sector and civil society is rarely addressed, and the prevalence of corruption in the developed north is seen as an abnormality. Corruption more broadly defined includes transactions or attempts to secure illegitimate advantage for national interests or private benefit or enrichment, through preventing public officials or any persons or entities from performing their proper functions with due diligence and probity. Experience shows that corruption is prevalent in all sectors in both developed and developing countries. People occupying the highest political office and management positions in the public and private sectors as well as in civil society organisations have abused their positions of authority and trust for private gain. Those that are guilty of corruption have been exposed irrespective of the sectors they come from. Governments have in cases acted without fear or favour, and as in the case of the Government of Lesotho, decisive State action has led to the prosecution of multinational corporations which have been found guilty of paying bribes. Africa forum confirmed the understanding that corruption is a societal problem, which affects all sectors of society differently. In South Africa, apartheid exposed us to the reality of systemic corruption which infused the entire society and was used to sustain those in power. The collusion of the elite with the ruling party amounted to a takeover of the state. The security of the State and protection of the rulers shaped the institutions as well as policies of governance and conditioned the behaviour of politicians, diplomats, business people and the security services. Apartheid was a criminal system maintained by criminal means with scant regard for public or private morality or respect for human life. Globally, corruption is not restricted to purely commercial transactions but may also be present when citizens seek access to social services such as health, welfare and education. A bribe may be demanded by a public official in order to deliver the service or grant access to the service to which the citizen is entitled and which the public official is obliged to deliver. The failure to deliver leads to a culture where citizens feel compelled to offer bribes in order to receive rights to which they are entitled, thus strengthening the climate of corruption. Reshaping the global discourse on corruption The intentional preoccupation in the global corruption discourse with bribe takers and bribe givers and particularly with bribe takers needs to be challenged precisely because it overlooks the complexity of the social forces, systems, processes and structures which underpin acts of corruption. It also needs to be challenged because as democratic states around the globe continue to strengthen the fight against poverty and underdevelopment, this preoccupation detracts from the broad goals of democracy and development. It also detracts from the centrality of the political economic interface in shaping particular acts of corruption. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen in his book 'Development as Freedom' reminds us that democracy as well as being an end in itself, plays a pivotal role in giving people a voice and a constructive role in shaping values and norms. He also persuasively argues that freedom is the ultimate goal of political, social and economic organisation as well as the most efficient means of realising general welfare. All social institutions including markets, political parties, legislatures, the judiciary and the media must contribute to development by enhancing individual freedom. Social institutions are in turn sustained by social values. This is why values, institutions, development and freedom are all closely interrelated. Sen links them together by questioning the relationship between our collective economic wealth and our individual ability to live free from poverty. As I have previously indicated in reshaping the global discourse on corruption we need to acknowledge that corruption is systemic and that it undermines value systems, norms and ultimately the very cohesion of society itself. While it may not be the intention of the corrupter to engage in practices that undermine the values of the nation State and the values of community, it has this effect, regardless of intent. Corruption engenders perverse political dependencies, lost political opportunities to enhance the wellbeing of the people and fosters a climate of mistrust particularly of public officials. The losses that accrue from a culture of permissiveness with respect to corruption include a loss of revenue, loss of trust, loss of values, loss of credibility and legitimacy and a loss of the democratic ethos and impulse within institutions and organisations. In 2004, Daniel Kaufmann, the World Bank's Institute's director for governance, estimated that over $1 trillion dollars (US$1 000 billion) is paid in bribes each year. The $1 trillion figure, calculated using 2001/02 economic data compares with an estimated size of the world economy at that time of just over US$30 trillion and excludes embezzlement of public funds or theft of public assets. Kaufmann also noted that a calculation of the total amounts of corrupt transactions is only part of the overall costs of corruption which constitutes a major obstacle to reducing poverty, inequality and infant mortality in developing countries. The principles of democratic administration, transparency, accountability and the rule of law form the basis of a more comprehensive understanding of corruption. This is why we need to reflect on the functioning of our national, regional and global political economies. In doing so we need to understand the objective social forces that shape our nation states, our regions and our continents and the material context in which corruption occurs. Fighting corruption globally Just as we create compacts between governments and civil society in building national integrity systems, similar compacts are important in combating corruption. We all need to ensure speedy ratification and accession to regional anti-corruption instruments and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). We also need to build greater synergy and mutual support between the Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity and the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. In the same spirit, we must ensure effective co-ordination and harmonisation of reporting responsibilities with respect to all multilateral instruments on preventing and combating corruption. We also call on all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member states to implement and enforce the provisions of the OECD convention on the Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. A key element in the fight against corruption is asset recovery. We must create conditions under which interstate and private sector co-operation is fostered including access to witnesses, documents and entities within their jurisdictions in the recovery and return of unlawfully appropriated public resources and assets to states from which they were pillaged. We need to strengthen national agencies that have anti-corruption responsibilities including specialised prosecutorial and anti-money laundering agencies. We must fortify sub-regional and regional bodies and international organisations that have been established to fight corruption. In order to support the fight against corruption and to assess material progress, we need as a matter of urgency to institute new systems for measuring corruption and anti corruption efforts which rise above the measurement of perceptions. Measurement of actual levels of corruption as well as perceptions should go beyond statistical modelling to include self assessment and peer review instruments. Conclusion We can all agree that anti-corruption strategies must be articulated by leaders in the political, economic and civil society spheres and must engage all sectors of society on the basis of a core set of leadership practices and values. If, as we have argued at the Africa Forum on Fighting Corruption, corruption has a deep and lasting impact on the very core values of society, then any anti-corruption strategy must articulate an alternative ethos and value system. Now is the time to infuse into the global discourse this African perspective which emerges from our own understanding of our communal traditions of fairness, justice and humanity. As we engage over the next four days we must demonstrate to the entire world our dedication to fighting corruption. We need to seize this opportunity of fostering collaborative work while recognising that no nation is free of corruption, that it benefits the few and harms the many. We also must agree that we need inter state co-operation on a number of fronts free from any conditionality to be effective in our fight against corruption. In conclusion, I would like to return to Ayi Kwei Armah's 'The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born,' where in a world of haves and have nots the real losers may be the half haves. They are the ones who come close enough to the rainbow to count its colours and stretch out their arms toward the pot of gold they will never touch. In penning his novel, Armah's heart appears to break as he describes a dank, rotten hell of down payments and kickbacks designed to generate an Eden of infinite desires. In apparent bemusement and with incipient frenzy, he confronts his own creation, "the man" and asks whether there was not something "unnatural in any man who imagined he could escape the inevitable decay of life and not accepts the decline into final disintegration?" While Armah scarcely allows his character the comfort of hope and leaves us wondering whether he himself has any hope at all, he is at heart a dreamer who cries out defiantly to the world because he has not yet found it worthy of the dreams he would like to create. And yet, underlying the title of his book 'The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born,' lies an ocean of hope, yearning and dreams. As the great Mahatma Ghandi once said, "we must become the change we want to see." I thank you! Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration 2 April 2007 |
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