Governance in region ‘quite weak’ : Global Corruption Report

GOVERNANCE performance in sub-Saharan Africa is, on average, quite weak despite the strong positive effect of governance on development and its importance to effective aid delivery, the 2006 Global Corruption Report says.

The report prepared by Transparency International last year ranked Namibia as having a Corruption Perception Index of 4,3 – 0 indicates highly corrupt and 10 highly clean. Namibia is currently ranked as the 47th most corrupt country in the world, having slid down the rankings since 2004 when it occupied 54th position.The 2006 Global Corruption Report focuses on corruption in the health sector.It found that in poor societies health is under threat because people cannot pay bribes or afford private healthcare.Namibia was not surveyed for this purpose, but the report found that a number of regimes that rose to power promising moral integrity and fiscal probity have collapsed as a result of corruption.It also shows that institutions, laws and mechanisms ostensibly aimed at fighting corruption can be rendered toothless if they are not granted the resources and independence necessary to perform their duties.In January, Namibia’s own Anti-Corruption Commission came into being and was last month allocated a budget of N$6,5 million.The drive to root out corruption will cost Government N$20 million over the next three years.ACC Director Paulus Noa said yesterday he was not familiar with the report.”In countries rich and poor around the world, corruption ruins lives.Corruption is a powerful force, but it is not inevitable or unavoidable,” said David Nussbaum, Chief Executive of Transparency International.Out of 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, 38 rank as weak in terms of governance performance, poorer than the world average, and also exhibit worse governance than the world average.In Africa, roughly the same number of countries have shown a decline in governance as have shown improvements between 1996 and 2004.The report says while rich countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom lose hundreds of millions of dollars to insurance fraud and corruption, examples from Mexico and Kenya illustrate how corruption affects health policy and spending priorities.In the health sector, corruption encompasses bribery of regulators and medical professionals, manipulation of information on drug trials, the diversion of medicine and supplies, corruption in procurement and overbilling of insurance companies.”It is not limited to abuse by public officials, because society frequently entrusts private actors in healthcare with important public roles.When hospital administrators, insurers, physicians or pharmaceutical company executives dishonestly enrich themselves, they are not formally abusing a public office, but they are abusing entrusted power and stealing precious resources needed to improve health,” says the report.Last year, the Ministry of Finance moved to clamp down on suspected fraud by medical practitioners who had been milking the State medical aid fund by overcharging patients for services.Several medical practitioners were found to have committed fraud by submitting false claims for the alleged treatment of State patients.Namibia only features in the latest Global Corruption report regarding the transparency in its budgetary process.TI says it is important for Government to provide comprehensive financial information in its budget documents for the public to evaluate its policy intentions, priorities and its implementation.”Public access to such documents is essential to ensure the government is financially accountable and that civil society can participate effectively in budget debates,” says the report.Namibia was among 36 countries surveyed by the International Budget Project (IBP) in 2004 The results were intended to offer an independent, non-governmental view of the state of budgetary transparency.The project has since been expanded and results from 60 countries are expected to be published in September.Researchers in the 36 countries found that all but one made their main policy document available to the public, but the lack of public access to other types of essential budget documents raised concern.Namibia scored 68 per cent for its executive budget documents, above the average of 56 per cent, but only 14 per cent for its monitoring and evaluating systems and 33 per cent for its public and legislative involvement in the budgetary process.Scores of 67 per cent or above generally indicate “positive practices”, and scores of 50 to 60 per cent reflect “mostly positive” practices.In contrast, scores of 33 to 49 per cent indicate “mostly negative” practices while scores of less than 33 per cent reflect “negative practices”.Significantly, the researchers found that many governments could substantially improve budget transparency in their countries by taking the simple step of releasing to the public documents they are already producing for internal use.With the exception of Namibia, the researchers found that in all the countries that did not release routine monitoring reports, these reports were in fact prepared, but only for internal use.According to the 2005 CPI rankings, Chad and Bangladesh are the world’s most corrupt countries; in southern Africa, Angola is the most corrupt and Botswana the least, followed by South Africa and Namibia.Namibia is currently ranked as the 47th most corrupt country in the world, having slid down the rankings since 2004 when it occupied 54th position.The 2006 Global Corruption Report focuses on corruption in the health sector.It found that in poor societies health is under threat because people cannot pay bribes or afford private healthcare.Namibia was not surveyed for this purpose, but the report found that a number of regimes that rose to power promising moral integrity and fiscal probity have collapsed as a result of corruption.It also shows that institutions, laws and mechanisms ostensibly aimed at fighting corruption can be rendered toothless if they are not granted the resources and independence necessary to perform their duties.In January, Namibia’s own Anti-Corruption Commission came into being and was last month allocated a budget of N$6,5 million.The drive to root out corruption will cost Government N$20 million over the next three years.ACC Director Paulus Noa said yesterday he was not familiar with the report.”In countries rich and poor around the world, corruption ruins lives.Corruption is a powerful force, but it is not inevitable or unavoidable,” said David Nussbaum, Chief Executive of Transparency International.Out of 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, 38 rank as weak in terms of governance performance, poorer than the world average, and also exhibit worse governance than the world average.In Africa, roughly the same number of countries have shown a decline in governance as have shown improvements between 1996 and 2004.The report says while rich countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom lose hundreds of millions of dollars to insurance fraud and corruption, examples from Mexico and Kenya illustrate how corruption affects health policy and spending priorities.In the health sector, corruption encompasses bribery of regulators and medical professionals, manipulation of information on drug trials, the diversion of medicine and supplies, corruption in procurement and overbilling of insurance companies.”It is not limited to abuse by public officials, because society frequently entrusts private actors in healthcare with important public roles.When hospital administrators, insurers, physicians or pharmaceutical company executives dishonestly enrich themselves, they are not formally abusing a public office, but they are abusing entrusted power and stealing precious resources needed to improve health,” says the report.Last year, the Ministry of Finance moved to clamp down on suspected fraud by medical practitioners who had been milking the State medical aid fund by overcharging patients for services.Several medical practitioners were found to have committed fraud by submitting false claims for the alleged treatment of State patients.Namibia only features in the latest Global Corruption report regarding the transparency in its budgetary process.TI says it is important for Government to provide comprehensive financial information in its budget documents for the public to evaluate its policy intentions, priorities and its implementation.”Public access to such documents is essential to ensure the government is financially accountable and that civil society can participate effectively in budget debates,” says the report.Namibia was among 36 countries surveyed by the International Budget Project (IBP) in 2004 The results were intended to offer an independent, non-governmental view of the state of budgetary transparency.The project has since been expanded and results from 60 countries are expected to be published in September.Researchers in the 36 countries found that all but one made their main policy document available to the public, but the lack of public access to other types of essential budget documents raised concern.Namibia scored 68 per cent for its executive budget documents, above the average of 56 per cent, but only 14 per cent for its monitoring and evaluating systems and 33 per cent for its public and legislative involvement in the budgetary process.Scores of 67 per cent or above generally indicate “positive practices”, and scores of 50 to 60 per cent reflect “mostly positive” practices.In contrast, scores of 33 to 49 per cent indicate “mostly negative” practices while scores of less than 33 per cent reflect “negative practices”.Significantly, the researchers found that many governments could substantially improve budget transparency in their countries by taking the simple step of releasing to the public documents they are already producing for internal use.With the exception of Namibia, the researchers found that in all the countries that did not release routine monitoring reports, these reports were in fact prepared, but only for internal use.According to the 2005 CPI rankings, Chad and Bangladesh are the world’s most corrupt countries; in southern Africa, Angola is the most corrupt and Botswana the least, followed by South Africa and Namibia.