Corruption should never be tolerated

Lazarus Sauti

Karl Kraus, Austrian writer and journalist, once said: “Corruption is worse that prostitution. The later might endanger the morals of an individual; the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.”

Kraus was right because corruption is the enemy of development, and of good governance since a country’s development depends on how much of the state resources are lost to this ugly practice.

In a country like Zimbabwe, where each borrowed dollar must be spent to uplift the people from poverty, corruption has a significant impact.

This is why a recent World Bank report lists corruption and lack of transparency as the two core reasons that hamper development.

To unravel this cancer, Transparent International, a global coalition on corruption, notes: “Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It hurts everyone who depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority.”

Corruption ultimately comes from weaknesses of human nature: greed, temptation, the desire to enrich oneself or to obtain business through unfair means.

Furthermore, corruption comes in different forms and has been engrained in people’s minds and its impact is severe.

The inadequate number of beds in hospitals, no medicines for patience, extreme poverty, lack of infrastructure and basic services in most – if not all – parts of Zimbabwe are in part fuelled by bribery, influence peddling, extortion, and abuse of power.

This is because the practice of corruption in this country is widespread, systematic and above all, it is entrenched at all levels of government.

To dig deeper, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) estimates that each African country on average loses US$25 billion annually to corruption, smuggling and under-invoicing of trade.

In its report on illicit financial flows from Africa, the continent has in the past 40 years lost nearly US$2 trillion to Western countries through corrupt practices.

UNECA says capital flight resulted in financial resources loss between 1970 and 2008 estimated at US$854 billion.

A further US$945 billion has been lost to cross-border illegalities such as mis-invoicing and smuggling.

Sharing the same sentiments, the Africa Research Online journal states that, “Illicit financial flows mean that Africa is the world’s biggest net creditor … (and) these outflows are at least double the amount of development assistance the continent receives.”

According to the Africa Research Online journal, Zimbabwe lost US$22.623 billion due to corruption.

This means corruption, which may include activities such as bribery and embezzlement or any dishonest and fraudulent conduct, has an adverse effect on the lives of Zimbabwe and her citizenry.

As a matter of fact, this scourge should never be tolerated and as such the scourge of corruption will never be holistically dealt with unless all aspects of graft are tackled.

To tackle this problem, the government should adopt policies that have zero tolerance for corruption.

President Robert Mugabe puts it thus, “My government will exercise zero tolerance to the scourge of corruption.”

He is also on record saying he will fire corrupt ministers if he is alerted to their underhand dealings and challenged Zimbabweans to expose such culprits.

Furthermore, President Mugabe warned that corrupt behaviour should stop forthwith and said measures to ensure accountability and service delivery from parastatals will be put in place, chief among which is the introduction of a results-based management system where government entities are required to submit reports and be subjected to routine inspection.

For this to be effective, the task therefore should entail every citizen’s will as corruption is perpetrated by members of the society.

Also, policy decision makers should urge public officials to shun corruption and be custodians of good practices.

Presidential Affairs Minister Didymus Mutasa puts it this way: “We should have a corruption free Zimbabwe as we work hard to achieve the goals we have set as a government for the next five years after our resounding victory in the harmonised elections.

“The call begins with us public officials and should cascade down to grassroots levels. Everyone in government should focus on uplifting the standards of living.”

He goes on to say, “The President is on record denouncing corruption for us to realise development and we should come in and support his efforts.”

From Minister Mutasa, public officials should work hard to uplift the lives of Zimbabweans.

What it means is that political leaders should continue to set high standards of honesty and integrity and the society must continue to reject corruption, not just because of the rules and penalties but to reflect the values that we uphold and hold ourselves to.

Policy makers should also develop a national anti-corruption strategy. Currently, that country has an ad hoc approach to deal with corruption.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has no control over what is happening in different ministries and parastatals.

Corruption is bound to flourish in a culture that encourages display of affluence without any regard as to how the wealth has been obtained.

More so, lack of accountability plays a crucial role in the promotion of bribery and resistance to any form of reform.

Therefore, corruption should never be tolerated if Zimbabwe wants to transform its economy.