Understanding Corruption in Zambia

8/10/2019 Understanding Corruption in Zambia

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Understanding Corruption in Zambia

By Chola Mukanga

A key feature of discussions about corruption is the tendency to treat

corruption as a uniform phenomenon. Commentators often veerunconsciously from one form of corruption to the next without clarity. It iscommon to read a commentator say, corruption is on the increase,without explaining what is actually meant by the term corruption.

he failure to distinguish between the many forms of corruption inevitablyimpacts on the !uality of the public debate. In particular, it preventsaccurate retelling of history and undermines the search for e"ectivesolutions. #or example, until we understand the multi$faceted nature ofcorruption we won%t be clear whether corruption is worse under the &anda

administration than it was under the 'aunda presidency. (e also won%t beable to understanding the extent to which the supposed on$going )ghtagainst corruption is succeeding.

he Laws of Zambia*ACC Act +o - of //01 de)nes corruption as thesoliciting, accepting, giving or oering of a gratication by way of a bribeor other personal temptation or inducement, or the misuse of abuse of apublic oce for private advantage or benet. his is a broad de)nition,with several vices falling under the term corruption. his short essayexamines )ve of these vices as re2ected in our society3 bribery4 public

theft4 political corruption4 wilful mismanagement4 and, nepotism.

A culture of bribeshe most well$known form of corruption in our society is bribery. &ribesare o"ered to facilitate transactions between parties. 5oliticians are oftenderided for suggesting that tackling corruption must start with each andevery 6ambian. (hat they usually mean is that corruption is a moral evilthat can be prevented by anyone with a free will. 7very 6ambian is free torefuse paying 8 accepting bribes. hat 6ambians engage in bribery pointsto the moral bankruptcy of the nation as a whole. &ribery in 6ambia istherefore not fundamentally a political problem but a social one. (e are a

corrupt people. hat is not to say that politicians have not played theirrole in creating and maintaining this bribery culture. Although bribery hasalways been with us it has undoubtedly got worse in the last -9 yearsunder ::; rule. he culture of free market liberalism and emphasis onpersonal enrichment coupled with signals of public theft by the elite hasushered in the so called cult to gauge. (e knowthat one cannot get anything done in 6ambia rapidly without some formof underhand payment, but how many bribes are paid annually? ;atacollection in this area tends to focus on public o>cials. #or example, in-99@, surveys showed that in businesses expected to make informalpayments to public o>cials, while in B expected to make gifts to secure


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government contracts. hose )gures only apply to public o>cials. Itexcludes bribes paid to other businesses, non$government organisationsand most importantly chiefs, who are undoubtedly the largest non$o>cialrecipients of bribes.&ut are bribes damaging to the economy? he empirical evidence is

mixed, but it certainly rules out the idea that bribery is bene)cial. (hilebribes in a very narrow sense can speed up things and help entrepreneursget on with wealth creation, in a broader sense, these bribes are obstaclesto development. his is because the cumbersome procedures that bribesare supposed to help overcome are usually created and maintainedprecisely because of their corruption potential. cers from taking bribes, we must move toeliminate the pointless road blocks that permeate our society. cial has greasy )ngers until they arecaught, but they can sense when public money has been stolen. (e havecome to call this public theft grand corruption, to re2ect the often largeramounts of money stolen.he Tas !orce on "orruptionwas predicated to investigate the allegedgrand theft committed by the ::; administration between // and-99. he grand in the end has not !uite )tted the original billing as themain suspect,


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5ublic theft cases continue to be met with uproar from the general public,much more than the systematic bribery which occurs at an e!ually largerscale. (hilst this may be due to poor detection of bribery, the inner senseof in=ustice o"ers a likely reason. 6ambians may be willing to accept 8 pay

bribes because they have erected a corrupt culture over the last twodecades, but eplicitpublic theft appears to run counter to the principle ofnatural =ustice. It violates access to goods and services which areinherently their right. &y stealing, the o>cial is robbing money away fromthe poor in a more explicit way than other forms of corruption. It is thisaspect of public theft that causes much consternation across 6ambiansociety.

+ot all theft causes signi)cant national damage, at least, in the shortterm. In most cases, money is merely misallocated and redistributedwithin the economic system. he most damage is done through capital-ight, when money is stolen and siphoned out of the country, resulting ina drain from the economic system. Addressing this form of corruptionre!uires a concerted approach among countries. Hnfortunately, manydeveloped countries have little economic incentive to prevent capital2ight because they are content to see such money lodge within theirbanking systems. If all stolen money from Africa was returned manywestern economies would collapse.

Corrupt politicians+ot all stolen money is whisked abroad. Hsually such money goes towardssupporting politicalcorruption.


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public condemnation when pictures surfaced showing :r &andadistributing food to potential voters.

he 'atete incident now stands as the high point of exposing politicalcorruption. enerally, buying the electorate either through chiefs or

directly has not attracted public disgust as other corrupt vices. A keyreason is that political corruption is seasonal. It tends to occur only whenan election is called. his e"ectively turns it into a one shot game, withlittle incentive for people to report. 5eople usually prefer to eat since theopportunity does not arise often. he other reason of course is that evenwhen people detect political corruption, the lack of enforcementmechanisms acts as a huge disincentive to report such activities toauthorities. As a general rule detecting and reporting corruption su"ersfrom a free riding problem. (hy report something that will bring you intocon2ict with the powers that be?

Lobbying for povertyA key determinant of successful electioneering is campaign )nance whichis usually sourced from multinational companies that lobby policychanges. In its purest form lobbyingis perfectly legal as it simply seeksto in2uence legislators to see the merit of a given policy proposal. (e alllobby politicians all the time. he problem is the specic form of lobbyingwhich allows people with particular interests who represent a minority togain special access to government, and through monetary contributionsand favours, develop controversial relationships with government leadersor institutions. his constitutes a form of back door corruption, which is

very prevalent in 6ambia.

Lne of the interesting historical !uestions is the extent to which theassumed reduction in public theft under the :wanawasa administrationwas merely substituted by foreign lobbying. Kecent empirical evidenceExiiFshows that thereMs certainly in2uence peddling going on in 6ambia bymany multinational )rms, which has a"ected industrial competition andproductivity. here%s no better example of this than the government failureto e"ectively implement a )scal regime for the mining industry, in face ofvery strong arm twistingExiiiF. :ining has always been a sphere of intense

lobbying at much expense to the poor. Keport after reportExivFcataloguethe clouds that still hang over the now abolished ;evelopmentAgreements *;As1, which to date has not been lifted through a crediblepublic in!uiry.

;As sympathisers would of course say that the problem was not lobbying,but poor mismanagement on part of government. he argument is thatoften public o>cials su"er from signi)cant asymmetric information whichputs them at a disadvantage when negotiating a deal. 7dith +awakwitypi)es this posture when she appealed to ignorance in =ustifying the saleof mines at giveaway prices, (e were told by advisers, who included the1nternational #onetary !und and the (orld +an, that not in my lifetime


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would the price of copper change0 They put production models on thetable and told us that there was no copper in 4changa mine, #ufulira wassupposed to have ve years life left and all the production models thatcould be employed were showing that, for the net 56 years, Zambiancopper would not mae a prot0 7"onversely, if we privatised8 we would

be able to access debt relief, and this was a huge carrot in front of us 9lie waving medicine in front of a dying woman0 (e had no option 7but togo ahead8. +o one seriously believes +awakwi%s poor attempt to shift theblame on the I:# 8 (orld &ank, but it does illustrate that often those ingovernment are only too ready to plead incompetence rather than themore serious charges of conniving with foreign forces to defraud the


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carry out specic duties because of our personal attachment to them.(hat followed was a surprisingly intense debate on the scourge ofnepotism. Hntil recently nepotism was rarely discussed in the press.7veryone knew it was there but it was not a feature of political dialogue.he traditional nature of our society is one where family relations often

dictate economic and social arrangements in our villages. (e might evengo further to say that the prevalent nature of nepotism may well be afunction of undeveloped impersonal forms of exchange. he market hasnot fully taken hold at every level of our society and thus instead ofcompeting on merit in every sphere, we are tied to relying on familymembers, etc.

In the broader scheme of things, :r 'alenga%s sentiments appears tocoincide with a growing realisation in the hird Kepublic that thedestruction of the Lne 6ambia, Lne +ation motto under the ChilubaAdministration, was giving way to an undercurrent of growing regionalismwhich appears to have culminated in the emergence of the so calledfamily tree under the BrdKepublican 5resident Gevy 5 :wanawasa. :r:wanawasa achieved some positive things during his tenure, butundoubtedly many will also remember his legacy, rightly or wrongly, asnepotistic. A fact he never run away from. (hen !uiOOed publicly over hisnepotistic tendencies, 5resident :wanawasa%s rehearsed rhetoricalresponse was3 do you guys epect me to appoint or help my enemies@+o, :r 5resident, but the public expects you to appoint people on merit.

In many ways nepotism is worse than other forms of corruption for threereasons. #irst, as we saw under the :wanawasa era it can give rise toworse evils. It was during the :wanawasa tenure that the concept ofGambaland emerged which has led to rival identities developing *e.g.&embaland, ongaland and &arotseland1. +epotism, regionalism andtribalism are now prevalent and are threatening to tear 6ambia%snationhood. +epotism unchecked therefore is an existential threat.


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competition which led to greater political bribery and intense lobbyingfrom foreign investors and other groups. 5rivatisation led to culture ofirresponsibility with signi)cant public theft which continues to persist. Ithas taken two decades to build a culture of corruption it will take longer todestroy it. Culture is resilient. (e should be upfront that corruption will

always be here. +epotism, public theft and other banes will always exist.he !uestion is one of scale. In our reading of history and the !uest todevelop mechanisms for combating this social evil it is vital that wedeepen our understanding of the complex issues involved. &lanketassessment of corruption makes headlines, but it does not help move thecountry forward. his essay is an attempt to broaden this understandingand steer discussion in the right direction. (e have become a corruptnation, and only with understanding can we begin to reverse the corruptculture.

Chola Mukanga is an economist and founder of the Zambian Economist which provides

independent economic perspectives on Zambia's progress towards meaningful development

for her people

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Understanding Corruption in Zambia