Corruption is a deep rooted problem in all parts of the public sector in Mozambique. The corruption affects the welfare of the citizens and jeopardizes the development of the African country, concludes a recent official survey.
By Per Bergholdt Jensen, Information Officer, Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, Nampula
Corruption represents one of the major problems in present day Mozambique. And it is a problem that is obstructing development and the fight against poverty, as well as good governance, transparency and justice within the juridical system.
According to The National Inquiry about Governance and Corruption – one of the biggest corruption surveys ever in Mozambique – the most affected areas within the Mozambican public sector include; the police, the juridical system, customs, licensing, the tax system, public procurement and budget administration of the state.
Mozambique is getting worse
The survey – that was presented by the Ministry of Public Administration – reveals that Mozambique is among the most corrupt countries in Southern Africa. In the region only Zimbabwe and Angola have worse standings.
Compared to other key factors in Mozambique between 1996 and 2002, the indicator of corruption is the only one that has shown a negative development. In short, this means the situation is getting worse.
The survey was conducted by The Ministry of State Administration, and was based on three parallel inquiries directed at families, companies and public functionaries. The survey included a total of 2.447 families, 486 companies and 992 public functionaries. It was carried out in 2003, but it was not published until the beginning of August 2005.
The questionnaires attempted to gather information about the public’s perception of the degree of corruption within the sector of the state. The survey also paid attention to the business environment and to the situation of the public institutions.
The MS Mozambique program also contributed to the final result, since Country Director, Rie Holmes, was interviewed on the corruption situation in the country as part of the survey.
The international anti-corruption NGO, Transparency International, states in its 2004 Corruptions Perceptions Index, that out of a 145 countries Mozambique is among the 55 most corrupt.
The index uses a scale from 0 to 10 points; 10 points being completely “clean”, and 0 points being utterly corrupt. Mozambique gets 2.8 points, the worst countries in the world 1.5 points.
Corruption will continue, if not…
One of the major reasons why corruption exists in the first place is due to lack of good governance and effective administration. The survey thus states weak control and monitoring mechanisms of public budget and expenses as important factors in this context.
The centralized and authoritarian bureaucracy of the Mozambican state is also stated as a problem in the survey. The hierarchic structure has a negative impact, because this system tends to take away responsibility from the public workers at the lowest administrative levels, and thus reduce their involvement in solving problems.
A way of dealing with this is to have a better informed staff, better equipment, more financial resources and improved communication between the employees.
Small scale corruption
The system itself might have a decisive role concerning the level of corruption. If people have to go through a horrendous bureaucratic struggle to get simple matters sorted out, they might feel tempted to speed things up a bit, that is, submit to corruption. And often the citizens are not left with much of a choice, because the rules are “bended”.
It is not uncommon, for instance, that school teachers do not receive their salaries for months, due to incompetence or corruption in the public administration. And how does a teacher in some far-flung village survive without his salary?
He or she charges the pupils illegally in order for them to pass their exams, even though these exams supposedly are for free according to the law. Hardworking pupils that would normally pass for free are forced to pay in order to carry on with their studies.
Another result of this praxis is that incompetent students in some cases pass their exams due to illicit payments. Consequently these incompetent students become incompetent professionals, and thus inadequate administration, education, etc., will prevail in the future.
The answer to these problems is to reinforce the governing bodies of society in order to make it more difficult for corruption to spread. In this case improved budget control could secure the teachers salary in the beginning, and then he would not be forced into corruption in order to survive.
In order to obtain their rights, the citizens can put pressure on governing bodies through organizations within the civic society.
The Fight against Corruption
President Armando Guebuza of the governing Frelimo Party has declared war on corruption. Mr. Guebuza has announced that the “deixa andar” mentality (i.e. bad administration, sloppiness, corruption, etc.) will no longer be tolerated.
As part of this fight the creation of an autonomous Corruption Fighting Central Office with a permanent staff has been approved. Previously there was an Anti-Corruption Unit with staff belonging to an attorneys office.
However, there is a certain irony to the current fight against corruption, since the Frelimo Party has been in power since the independence of Mozambique in 1975. It is thus under the Frelimo reign that the “deixa andar” mentality and the corruption has rocketed to the present level.
Mozambique annually receives some 50 per cent of the state budget from foreign donors, so it is obviously a government priority to please to them. And fighting corruption and promoting good governance is crucial as to securing future funding from the international donor society.
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