During his address to a group of newly elected members to the Colombo Municipal Council recently, Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe made an apt remark. He said, “Some politicians own only a push bicycle when they come to politics but later obtain Benz cars. Don’t think of becoming such politicians.”
Prime Minister is correct. During the past five decades we have seen how some corrupted politicians began to grow within a short period in power – in terms of bank accounts, properties, trade and finance and asset base. Their immediate families, too, followed suit.
It is consoling to note that the Prime Minister has understood this burning issue very well.
Corruption
Corruption is a much-hackneyed word in our country. Party orators and writers, journalists, and reformers all have used it with the utmost freedom. Popular disgust is frequently expressed at the lack of political will to take appropriate action and the deviousness of the law's procedure. The recent LG election result is one of the classic examples of the peoples’ disappointment.
Corruption is not confined to Sri Lanka. Political power is abused wherever it exists - with scandals ranging from political graft in India to white collar crime on Wall Street to bribery of government regulators in China.
Is corruption just a matter of legality, of financial irregularity and bribery, or is it the currency of a social transaction in an outrageous unequal society, in which power continues to be concentrated in the hands of a smaller minority of politicians and businessmen? Does the solution to the problems faced by ordinary people lie in addressing the structural inequality, or in creating yet another power structure to control a massive corrupted structure?
For long term solution, these questions need to be answered. But, in the short term, what we need today is to think of reform options to reduce corruption and mitigate its effects.
Reforms
We must, first of all, understand that there is no silver bullet for fighting corruption. Many countries have made significant progress in curbing corruption; however, practitioners are always on the lookout for better solutions with evidence of impact.
Susan Rose-Ackerman, Professor of Jurisprudence (Law and Political Science), recommends a two-pronged strategy aimed at increasing the benefits of being honest and the costs of being corrupt, a sensible combination of reward and punishment as the driving force of reforms.
To work on her theory, we have to consider few relevant points.
Are public servants in Sri Lanka appropriately compensated? Only a comprehensive research would reveal the answer. If salaries and wages are too low, public servants may find themselves under pressure to supplement their incomes in “unofficial” ways. A research done by an international body has shown that there is an inverse relationship between the level of public sector emoluments and the incidence of corruption.
There are various ways in which the government manages public resources: subsidies, tax exemptions, public procurement, soft credits, extra-budgetary funds etc. But the common denominator is all of them are under the control of politicians. Government will collect taxes, tap the capital market to raise money, receives foreign aid and develops mechanisms to allocate these resources to satisfy a multiplicity of needs.
Some countries do this in ways that are relatively transparent and make efforts to ensure that resources will be used in the public interest.
The more open and transparent the process, the less opportunity it will provide for wrongdoing and abuse. Countries where citizens are able to scrutinize government activities and debate the merits of various public policies also makes a difference.
New Zealand, for example, is one of the top performers in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
They were pioneers in creating transparent budget processes. In 1994 they implemented the Fiscal Responsibility Act, providing a legal framework for transparent management of public resources.
Red tape
Research has also revealed that there is a high correlation between the incidence of corruption and the extent of bureaucratic red tape. It is therefore desirable to eliminate as much as possible the needless regulations while safeguarding the essential regulatory functions of the Government. For example, there is a plethora of PRs and FRs which are extremely burdensome to genuine users. Strangely, none of our governments have paused to examine whether the purpose for which these regulations were introduced is at all relevant to the needs of today.
International conventions
Most of the big-time corruptions have a cross-border dimensions. That is why the international legal framework for corruption control is a key element among the options open to any government. This framework has improved significantly over the past decade. Take for example, (UNCAC) UN Convention Against Corruption.
Though Sri Lanka is a party to UNCAC, it seems that we have not made use of these legal mechanisms freely available to UN’s member states to eliminate corruption and recover looted assets that have been transferred to other countries.
Sri Lanka has also signed but not ratified the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Sri Lanka is a signatory to the OECD-ADB Anti-Corruption Regional Plan but has not joined the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.
Smart technology
Perhaps one of the most fertile sources of corruption is associated with the purchasing activities of the state. Because the awarding of contracts will involve a measure of bureaucratic discretion, more and more countries have opted for procedures that guarantee adequate levels of openness, competition, a level playing field for suppliers, fairly clear bidding procedures, and so on. They use modern information technology.
Chile is a good example about the usage of latest technologies to create one of the world’s most transparent public procurement systems in the world. Known as ChileCompra, it is a public electronic system for purchasing and hiring, based on an Internet platform. It has earned a worldwide reputation for excellence, transparency and efficiency.
Willingness
If the above-mentioned measures can be adapted in Sri Lanka, they will assist in the mitigation of corruption. The underlying philosophy is one of eliminating the opportunity for corruption by changing incentives, by closing off loopholes and eliminating misconceived rules that encourage corrupt behaviour.
But an approach that focuses solely on changing the rules and the incentives, accompanied by appropriately harsh punishment for violation of the rules, is likely to be far more effective if it is also supported by the genuine willingness of the politicians who are in the power. That was the hitch we always had.
Ethics
We also need to reinforce the moral and ethical foundation of our society. First, let us focus on our education system. Let us ensure that school and university curricula are updated and modernized in line with societal changes. We need a holistic education system for the next generation through community and religious institutions, vocational and internship opportunities, and participation in public and political processes as an integral part of socialization and development.
Closely connected to the focus on education is the need to create a culture of integrity that is “hard-wired” in society. While such a culture can be fostered and advanced through the comprehensive education of the next generation, there is no reason to limit such efforts to only young people.
Public servants, political leaders and private-sector actors – individually and collectively – can begin establishing and strengthening a culture of integrity that concentrates on high-quality service delivery and professional performance standards, treating individuals with respect and dignity, and – above all else – playing by the same rules of fairness and objectivity.
That means living by principles seemingly so basic and obvious as “no cutting corners” and “not being above the law”.
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