How to Stop Corruption [opinion]

by Arun Korath 

Jun 16, 2015 (The Ethiopian Herald/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- 

Stopping corruption is saving this generation and the one to come.

Corruption is a serious problem. It can be controlled. Honest and dedicated persons in public life could be the most important prescriptions to combat corruption. It has a destructive consequence on the Ethiopian economy.
It exasperates image of the country in global arena and leads to loss of overseas opportunities. Corruption is also a global problem that all countries of the world need to confront. Here are some principles that help us to fix the problem.
1. A reasonable and transparent tax structure, backed by clean and clear enforcement:_Our direct taxes (personal income and corporate) are no longer unreasonable, so there's little excuse for trying to evade them.
But there is an unhealthy trend in piling on surcharges on various pretexts. Also, there are tons of other taxes that can add up to quite a bit. Finally, there's the larger question of how efficiently and honestly taxpayers' money is put to use -- when you see the state of government hospitals and schools, and rotten roads, you wonder where the money you paid as tax has gone.
2. Liberal and contemporary laws that citizens can understand and respect: People find it difficult to accept ridiculous, outdated and moralistic laws - worse, they may not even be aware of some of these laws till some law enforcer somewhere decides to use them to harass and to extract money.
Once you dismiss a law or rule as stupid and worthy of breaking, there's a human tendency to take other laws less seriously. Therefore, to the extent possible, there's a need to cut back on the multiplicity of unnecessary and complex laws, and zero in on just the ones that are needed to ensure a fair, equitable and just system. These should then be administered without fear or favour.
3. Reduce the role of the government in people's lives to the absolutely essential: In some ways, this is related to our earlier point. The greater the scope for government interference - be it the police or the clerk in a government office or the customs inspector - the greater the scope for harassment and graft.
4. Minimize discretionary powers of ministers and bureaucrats: This would reduce scope for misuse of such powers to favour some - especially in lucrative areas such as award of government land. Where discretionary powers are unavoidable, bring in checks and balance. After a deal is done, the relevant documents should be put up on the internet.
5. Pay government and officers, judges and policemen market-indexed salaries commensurate with their responsibility: This would minimise the 'need' for bribes. Their salaries could be bench marked against corporate sector salaries.
But higher salaries should be combined with exemplary punishment, including dismissal from service and a police case if an employee is caught indulging in corrupt practices. Mere transfer or suspension won't do.
6 Keep transactions online and provide bill for every purchase: Many of them do not pay taxes and escape. This involves corruption.
Making payments online through bank accounts and provision of bills for every transaction involving money. This is a better corruption watch. In other words, public should opt for cashless transactions where possible. This will limits the corruption related to money.
7. Camera in most government offices: In every ATM there are camera to keep a watch on the public taking their money. Then why not government offices have cameras to have a watch on the employee performance.
Even there are many employees who openly take bribe in presence of common men. This public bribery is due to confidence that public wants their work more than the amount they are paying to them as bribes.
8. Introduce sweeping police reforms and stronger judicial accountability: This has been discussed for decades but there's been no action. The recommendations for reforms are already there. Set a time frame for implementation. This will make the police not just a professional force that's not at the beck and call of politicians, but also a trained one with in-built checks against developing vested interests.
Today the situation often is that the investigator (police officer) is answerable to the person being investigated (politician).
Also, separate the police into two wings: one for investigation and the other for maintaining law and order. The two functions are different and require different skill sets. Sadly, the image of the judiciary has taken a knock in recent years - for the common man, the courts are the last resort for seeking justice.
9. Blacklist corrupt businessmen: Private businesses caught indulging in corrupt practices or bribing officials should be blacklisted for, say, 10 years and be barred from government projects.
In the category of corrupt practices would fall use of shoddy material - like road contractors who give one inch of tar when they are supposed to give four inches and the road crumbles after one monsoon. Bigger instances of private businesses cutting corners in public projects by colluding with corrupt officials should attract exemplary punishment.
10. Transparency and stricter scrutiny of government tenders/orders, including auction/sale of public-owned assets: Hundreds of thousands of orders are placed every year by government departments. It's common knowledge that tenders are often awarded on considerations other than merit. This is one of the biggest sources of corruption in the country. And don't forget, this is taxpayers' money that is being diverted illegally.
Finally, and this is for every one of us, let's try and say no to bribes. This is the right moment to unleash a national campaign against giving bribes as the mood against corruption is high. Ultimately, we can't get rid of the bribe taker if we are willing to be bribe givers.

Source: http://www.individual.com

Tedros Adhanom caught in $20 million teen prize scandal

By Abebe Gellaw

(Addis Voice) The Foreign Minister of Ethiopia has been caught in an explosive web of lies with a schoolgirl as the Government of Australia and the Rotary Foundation have denied giving 20 million Australian dollars to a 14-year old teenager, whom the nation’s “top diplomat” publicly praised and endorsed as an “exemplary philanthropist” and claimed her to be the winner of an unnamed “international prize”.

The Ethiopian-Australian girl, Beritu Jaleta Ahmed, claimed last week in a joint press conference with Dr. Tedros Adhanom in his own office that she was ready to build a school in Ethiopia with the 20 million Australian dollars that she won in a student competition held at her school in Melbourne. According to her, the prize money was jointly funded by the Australian Government and the Rotary Club of Australia [sic].

But Baden Powell College’s leadership, who knew nothing about the the competition or the prize, have already referred the matter to Victoria Police for investigation, Addis Voice has learnt. The public school that takes students from prep to 9th grade is dominated by students from immigrant families. It has around 1800 students, 180 staff and 50 volunteers. It gets an annual budget of around 12 million Australian dollars from the coffers of the Victoria Department of Education.

Tedros Adhanom publicly praised the teenager as a unique “role model” among the Ethiopian Diaspora for allocating such a large amount of money for development at such a young age. He commended her philanthropy and pledged that the government of Ethiopia would provide all the necessary support for the completion of the “modern school” project from nursery to secondary school levels that she planned build in Gara Muleta, Eastern Harargie, the birthplace of her father.

The Government of Australia and the Rotary Foundation have distanced themselves from the scheme and told Addis Voice that they have never heard of such a grand prize or the teenage winner of a multi-million dollars school competition. Some members of the Ethiopian community in Melbourne have blamed the girl’s father and the government in getting involved in such a shameful scam that can adversely affect the image of the country.

Jenna Hand, a spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, refuted the teenager’s claim that the Government of Australia gave her half of the prize money. In a written statement emailed to this reporter, the spokesperson said: “The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has not given 10 million Australian dollars to fund a school in Gara Muleta, Ethiopia. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade supports education in Ethiopia by providing core funding to the Global Partnership for Education. Ethiopia is a recipient of Global Partnership for Education funding,” the official Australian Government statement said.

The Foreign Minister had also maximized the PR “opportunity” by spreading and spinning the news, along with pictures of himself, the girl and her father, Jaleta Ahmed, on Facebook and Twitter. “Beritu Jaleta has done an extraordinary deed that we should all learn from,” he wrote on his Facebook page. Under Australian law any person under the age of eighteen is considered a child.

“I came here to Ethiopia to build a school in Gara Muleta, Harargie. I won a competition of 20 million Australian dollars. So I came here with the Embassy of the government of Ethiopia in Australia to begin my project and the construction and also see the area and the land,” she told journalists, who were not allowed to raise any serious questions during the press the stage managed conference held in the office of the Minister.

Tewolde Mulugeta, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, added a spin to the propaganda claiming that she received the award last year for her extraordinary academic performance and proposal to build a school. “She used to participate in various school clubs. One of the clubs was the one she headed in areas of human affairs. While she was working in that club, they were exchanging views regarding the support of people for others,” Tewolde said unconvincingly. “The main thing was that she proposed an idea to create opportunities for others to get education. We have learned that people who have heard the idea arranged the prize for her. This happened nearly one year ago, around 2014,” he claimed nervously without providing any proofs and verification.  

Bruce Allen, Manager of Rotary International in Australia, pointed out that 1300 Rotary Clubs raised only $A 5.6 million dollars for its own humanitarian projects and activities last year let alone giving “an outrageous amount of money” to a 14-year old school girl. “It is totally out of question. There was no application or grant to this person,” he said.

“She is saying that half the money came from the Rotary Club and half of it from the Government Australia. There is no way that any Rotary Club in Australia could afford to pay that amount of money. We just don’t have the money. She got 20 million Australian dollars and I find it highly unlikely. That is an outrageous amount of money,” Mr. Allen noted. He also said that there is nothing called “Rotary Club of Australia” as the girl said because there are 1300 Rotary clubs in the country.

“We only have money for a whole rage of humanitarian programs. But we will never ever get involved to this extent. It is a lot of money and there is no Rotary Club in Australia that could afford to do that.There is a key point here. She is saying that half the money came from the Rotary Club and half the money is coming from the Australian government. There is no way any Rotary Club in Australia could afford to pay that amount of money,” he said.

So many puzzled Ethiopians took to social media to vent their anger and express their doubts on how the person in charge of Ethiopia’s foreign relations is unaware of unlikely global developments as well as the legal implications of corrupting the morals and psychology of a child by involving her in such an orchestrated web of lies and deceptions never heard of in the history of schools anywhere in the world without making any effort to verify such claims.

by 37 percent in a bid to reduce the cost of the national expenditure. From $A 225 million the previous year, the Government of Australia cut its aid to Africa to just 133 million AUD.What makes the story even more ludicrous and bizarre is the fact that during the 2013/14 budget year Australia cut its foreign aid to Sub-Saharan Africa

During the same budget year, Rotary Foundation gave grants totalling $14.2 million to support 265 projects worldwide in the areas of disease prevention and treatment that he foundation dispersed  totalling only $6.5 for education and literacy to support 66 projects around the world,  according to its annual report.

Meanwhile, the Baden Powell College administration declined to give any official statement. But a school source, who spoke on condition anonymity, told Addis Voice that the school officials are very upset and disappointed to be dragged into this kind of scandalous scam.

“Because the issue involves a minor and is also under investigation by the police, we are not authorized to make any public comments,” the source said. The motto of the school is “Looking Forward, and Staying Ahead.” It is not now clear if Mr. Jaleta Ahmed and his daughter are looking forward to returning to Australia to face the music or would rather stay in Ethiopia despite being caught in dangerous web of lies and scandals.

Source:addisvoice.com