(And why no one is laughing)
The
arraignment of the Minister of Secondary Education, Mr. Louis Bapes Bapes on
charges of misappropriation of public funds and his twenty-four hour detention
in the Kondengui Central prison had a numbing sense of déjà vu. That some media
still reported the incident as proof that the actually exists a will to fight
corruption in this country, and that some Cameroonians continue to believe this
regime can seriously fight corruption are both proof of the incredible weakness
of the Cameroonian mind. To enlightened and impartial observers of our
political system however, this regime’s professed commitment to fight
corruption is a bad joke given the seriousness of the issue, because the costs
of corruption are immeasurable – injustice, misallocation of resources,
economic decay. Corruption at all levels has been denounced by social,
religious and political leaders as the primary obstacle for development in
Cameroon. Corruption affects a staggering number of livelihoods and lives and
erodes the faith of citizens in their governments and in the rule of law*.
What’s more, corruption scares away foreign investors, hits the poor the
hardest, leads to greater inequality, acts as a regressive tax to the poor
while denying them basic services*.
Cameroon has long established its
pre-eminence in corruption on the world stage. Terms like ‘kleptocracy’ - rule
by thieves (a form of political and government corruption where the government
exists to increase the personal wealth and political power of its officials and
the ruling class at the expense of the wider population often with pretence of
honest service)* and ‘plutocracy of embezzlers’ have been used at some point or
other to describe Cameroon. In 1998 and 1999 Cameroon was ranked the most
corrupt country in the word by Transparency International. Using the (TI) 1999
global index, Cameroon had the worst record among 158 countries. Based on the
same index, Cameroon was among the world’s 10 most corrupt nations again in
2005. According to the Global Corruption Barometer report released in December
2007 by Transparency International Cameroon was the country with the worst
results with 79% of Cameroonians admitting to having paid a bribe to public
officials for some service in the preceding year. Cameroon has also fared
woefully based on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) which ranks 176
countries from a scale of 100 (very clean) to zero (highly corrupt). Yet these
indices only point to the tip of the iceberg. Because acts of corruption are
undocumented and hidden, it is almost impossible to rank countries with any
degree of certainty. Anyone who has lived in Cameroon knows the country is far
more corrupt than any of these indicators may suggest.
This regime’s approach to the problem
of corruption was initially one of denial. In 1991 the Head of State on
official visit to France, in response to questions regarding the
Director-General of the defunct National Produce Marketing Board (NPMB) – Roger
Meingui’s embezzlement of the organization’s funds, declared that reporters
were irresponsibly bandying around unsubstantiated allegations of corruption.
Où sont les preuves? he demanded. According to Mr. Garga Haman Adji one-time
Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reforms, "When I complained
that there were too many state servants who have been amassing wealth from
state coffers, I was told to show proof… When I showed proof by forwarding 32
names to the head of state, nothing was done, these people were never
sanctioned, and I had to resign.” It was this willful blindness - this refusal
to acknowledge the presence of the elephant in the room which is credited with
having opened wide the floodgates of corruption.
Events would later compel the man who
had promised to institute rigor and moralization in the public domain to admit
- albeit grudgingly, that corruption was endemic in Cameroon. Even then, he was
defensive of his record, displaying a bewildering tolerance for the plague
which he said was not unique to the Cameroonian experience: “Corruption is a
vice which is not specific to Cameroon, it is a global phenomenon, but we think
a country like ours, which does not have enormous resources, will stand to benefit
if we avoid wasting money and other funds. We are determined to go on and we
have not only proceeded to arrest some officials who are today facing the law,
but have also put in place a certain number of structures”
His response to the problem was to embark
on a flurry of activity; he put in place a number of structures and launched a
barrage of campaigns aimed at curbing the scourge. Government created
anti-corruption units in 29 ministries in 1997 (though fully 75 percent of
these units never went operational, according to the Ministry of Public Service
and Administrative Reform). The following year, the National Anti-Corruption
Observatory was created and placed under the supervision of the Prime Minister
and Head of Government. Nonetheless the country was losing the war against
corruption as the Head of State himself admitted in his new year address on
December 31 2005: "There is a clear mismatch between our efforts to
alleviate poverty and the scandalous enrichment of a few individuals…Public funds
are embezzled, it should be recalled, at the expense of the nation. I want to
say very solemnly today that this must stop….Such a drain on the national
wealth is intolerable especially as part of our population, particularly the
unemployed, are still suffering hardships.”
The President’s resolve was underscored
by pounding his fist on the lectern. A few days later, two magistrates were
fired for corrupt practices, and two weeks later the government launched a
nation-wide campaign to eradicate corruption. The National Anti-Corruption
Observatory on its part launched a nation-wide information and awareness
campaign against graft. Apparently the Observatory failed to meet the
government’s lofty expectations, so on
Saturday, March 11, 2006, President Paul Biya signed a Decree creating a
National Anti-Corruption Commission, NAC - an independent public body charged
with the responsibility of fighting against corruption –
under the chairmanship of Paul Tessa, former minister and Secretary General at
the Presidency - with the President of the Republic himself at the helm. NAC
better known by its French acronym CONAC replaced the National Anti-Corruption
Observatory, which was headed by the Prime Minister. The President later
expressed his satisfaction that he had put in place the right administrative
machinery for tracking all forms of corruption and also capable of waging a
sustained war against corruption, citing among others the country's Audit
Bench, the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the National Financial
Investigation Agency, and tenders boards.
The
government in 2008 launched “opération
épervier” (operation sparrow hawk) whose main accomplishment has been the
sensational arrest of some of President Paul Biya’s close collaborators -
mainly former ministers and managing directors of state-owned corporations. The
accused were tried, found guilty and given heavy sentences. Experts were
appointed to recover some 162 million Euros stolen by these white-collar
gangsters. Recently the President created a ‘special criminal court’ to try,
within six months, those accused of stealing public wealth “to the value of at
least 50 million CFA francs.” But activity does not necessarily translate into
progress, as no one can claim that Cameroon is any less corrupt today than it
was before all the anti-corruption structures were set up and campaigns
launched. Good governance, value-driven government and accountability should
have been the result of any honest fight against graft. If anything, Cameroon
is more corrupt today than ever. Here’s why this regime cannot be taken
seriously as far as fighting corruption is concerned:
1-To
say the Biya system is corrupt is the understatement of our lifetime: It is
more appropriate to say that the Biya system is corruption. Corruption is no longer the problem of the Biya system;
corruption is the Biya system! Hence to fight corruption will be tantamount to
political suicide. If it is the case that Cameroon has been managed through the
‘carrot and stick’ method, then Mr. Ahidjo held the stick and Mr. Biya the
carrot. While Mr. Ahidjo was a practitioner of hard power, intimidating and
exiling opponents, outlawing opposition and operating political dungeons, Mr.
Biya who inherited enormous oil wealth dispensed with Mr. Ahidjo’s gulags, and
focused on using the money to buy over his opponents. This regime’s approach to
governance can be summarized as ‘carrotocracy’
– the use of public money to buy loyalty, gag critics, traffic influence, and
especially to acquire and retain power. In came the era of rampant consumerism
and unrestrained consumption – the chop
broke pot era – where the impulse to live only for today, and plundering
for one’s ease and convenience became the national mantra. The Ahidjo regime
was not altogether devoid of graft, but in the Biya era it assumed blockbuster
proportions. Smart alecks with impressive academic credential were brought into
government. But education without discipline is a dangerous thing, for, as
Thomas Jefferson once said, “A man who
has never gone to school may steal a freight car, but if he has a university
education, he may steal the whole railroad.”
The
Biya regime has been big on distributing the country’s wealth, but deficient in
creating wealth as evidenced by our sclerotic economic growth. Mr. Biya
liberalized the political scene but quickly brought in the money tyranny to
corrupt and ultimately kill the fledgling democratic process. When opposition
to the regime reached its apotheosis in 1992 and the parties of the opposition
combined held a majority of seats in parliament, the party in power responded
with a blank check. The Movement for the Defense of the Republic (MDR) took the
bait and sold its six vital seats to the CPDM which went on to retain control
of the legislature. Later that year the incumbent scored a highly disputed
victory with just over a third of the votes in the presidential polls. The
party-regime whose overriding concern is self-preservation has since ensured
that its fate would never again hang on the balance. The opposition has been
infiltrated and bought over. According to Africa
Confidential of October 2005, Mr. John Fru Ndi’s fortune was estimated at
125 million dollars, with over 70% accruing from political deals with the
President of the Republic between 2002 and 2005. Mr. Fru Ndi denied the report
and offered to declare his assets, but was unable to do so. The various
elections monitoring organs have been stuffed with defenders of the regime and
prodigious sums of public money devoted to winning elections. The day to day
management of the affairs of state is the chop
I chop approach, or as a high priest of the system described it, scratch my back I scratch your back.
2-This
regime’s definition of corruption is itself corrupt. Corruption has been
redefined as embezzlement of astronomic sums of money by high-profile
government officials, while those who live obscure lives away from the public’s
gaze drain the treasury on a daily basis and no one is keeping track. This
method of fighting corruption is analogous to trying to retain water in a sieve
by plugging only a few big holes. The sensational arrest of a former minister
or director may create a buzz in the media, but does nothing to buck the trend
or dissuade others from stealing public money. As soon as the dust settles, it
is back to business as usual. Thus was the
Chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Commission of Cameroon, CONAC, crowned
“2011 Man of the Year” by the Guardian Post Newspaper for “launching a ceaseless and fearless war against high profile corrupt
officials in Cameroon” even as the Commission’s chair awkwardly admitted to
having recovered less than 1% of the money embezzled by those apprehended by
CONAC! In the meantime, the police, customs, tax inspectors, stores
accountants, treasurers, medical doctors and nurses, school principals,
contractors and tender’s boards, civil and municipal administrators,
magistrates and court registrars, anyone with a signature etc., are quietly but
steadily fleecing the treasury with impunity.
A proper definition of
corruption encompasses all illegal, bad or dishonest behaviour, especially by
people in positions of power. It runs the gamut from aspects of moral
perversion and depravity to misuse of public office for private gain. Bribery,
extortion, cronyism, tribalism, nepotism, patronage, graft, embezzlement, are
all forms of corruption. It was in recognition of this other aspect of
corruption that in February 2012 CONAC organized a conference on “Sexual Harassment and Deontology in the
University Milieu.” But the war on moral corruption was long lost in
Cameroon, a people often described as morally bankrupt. Tribalism has been
institutionalized (Ateba Eyene spoke of the ‘host country’- the
Fang-Beti-Bulu-Ewondo ethnic axis which hold power and their entitlement to the
spoils of power); nepotism is taken for granted (if your brother is atop a plum
tree, you have a right to enjoy the best fruits); sex for marks is widely
practised in high schools and universities (and considered the teacher’s fringe
benefit). The offence which got the artiste Longue
Longue in trouble in France – statutory rape – is the favourite pastime of
middle-aged Cameroonians, and widely considered a form of rejuvenation. Ndedi
Eyango spoke of a country where the innocent are in jail while the guilty walk
free; a place where graduates were unemployed and illiterates had jobs. Lapiro
de Mbanga said in his country custom officers and smugglers belong in the same njangi. Nigerians and other foreign
nationals hold Cameroonian National Identity Cards. Sects, mystical and magical
societies have proliferated all over the national territory along with their
sodo-masochistic practices and ritual killings. These secret societies are
accepted as the pathway to power, at the expense of merit. The effect of
corruption is widespread poverty. The poor increasingly seek solace in church
and pray for a miracle while the corrupt church constantly preys on the poor.
3-Corruption is the
regime’s proffered solution to some pertinent problems:
·
The
problem of poor salaries: Salaries are generally shitty in Cameroon and
poorly-paid workers believe pilfering the state or other employer is fair
compensation for their low pay. Tollgate operators collect 200 francs from
drivers to let them skip paying toll, nurses charge 1000 francs to infuse
patients or dress wounds, some have been known to sell anti-retroviral
medication, night-watchmen at secondary schools let students go on unauthorized
outings in exchange for cigarettes, court registries impose a 1000 franc
surcharge on the public for fiscal stamps that are neither needed nor bought.
Since civil servants’ salaries were slashed in 1993 by 70% based on the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) instruction that government cut spending,
civil servants have been hard-pressed to make ends meet on their salary alone.
The real value of civil servants’ pay plummeted further in 1994 following the
50% devaluation of the franc CFA, making it almost impossible for public
servants to live on their salaries. Government has not revised the salary scale
and it has become the civil servant’ excuse for dipping their hands in state
coffers, with the government’s blessing.
·
The unemployment problem:
Punitive and arbitrary taxes, complex business registration procedures and
impromptu raids by government officials have stymied private sector growth
while systemic corruption has discouraged foreign investment, freezing job
creation in the country. The state, as main employer recruits into the civil
service annually through the most crooked public exams system ever conceived.
Hundreds of thousands of university graduates and other school-leavers scramble
for a couple hundred highly coveted spaces into GTTC, ENS, CUSS, ENAM, School
of Forestry, ASMAC, IRIC, etc. Tribe, position, power are the main intervening
variables in the selection process. There is a price list for buying one’s way
into these schools ranging from a few hundred thousand to ten million francs
CFA, with ENAM offering the best return on investment. This system of ‘concours’ is the symbol of the victory
of corruption, the failure and resignation of political opposition, and the
complete disillusionment of the youth; perennially unemployed youth, a
formidable force which could be harnessed by the opposition to overturn the
corrupt system are instead begging and bribing to be integrated into the same
system which holds them in thrall. If you
can’t beat them they say, join them.
·
Corruption is the engine
that propels this country – backwards. There would be scarcely any workers at
their duty posts but for the illicit gains that accrue from coming to work.
Absenteeism, lateness, lack of motivation, lethargy, and cynicism are the
defining characteristics of the Cameroonian public servant. Except when there
is money to be made for themselves. Policemen on duty at the station go to
sleep soon after dark but stay awake all night when they mount roadside
controls so they don’t miss collecting 500 francs from drivers even at three
o’clock in the morning. Some of those ‘controls’ are not sanctioned by
hierarchy. Failure to deliver on basic public utilities like water and
electricity or services like roads and schools are blamed on contracts handed
out through shady deals, absence of follow-up or patronage which protects even
the worst offenders from prosecution. Those who can afford it buy back-up
generators and drill bore-holes to make up for insufficient light and water and
the problems never get addressed. Those who have the opportunity steal
government money to procure these items. The solution to bad roads is to steal
enough money to buy a 4x4 sport utility vehicle. And when the big boys roll out
the big toys, the impressionable public gawks at these symbols of graft. It is
jungle-style survival of the fittest as the Cameroonian people are made to
believe that monopolies like SNEC and SONEL - which set their own unit prices,
impose all sorts of surcharges on their customers such as meter rent and late
fees - are incapable of breaking even and have to be auctioned off time and
again to foreign investors whose only interest is making a killing.
4) The arrest of a minister or director
of this regime is the ultimate act of hypocrisy. A minister or director is expected
to be corrupt. Upon his/her appointment as minister or director, he/she becomes
ipso facto the political boss of
their constituency. They are automatically co-opted into the CPDM’s central
committee. They are expected to coordinate all party activity beginning with
their all-important home-coming during which they must rally their constituency
to pay homage and express undying allegiance (through motions of support) to
the Head of State for thinking them fit to have a minister. The minister’s
other political duties include rallying the masses behind the ruling party at
all times, particularly around national days and important anniversary
celebrations. Most importantly, he/she must constitute a war chest capable of
winning every single election for his personal survival in office and the
party’s continued grip on power. All that money has to come from somewhere, and
it would be foolish to expect it all to come from the minister’s pay check.
Traditionally they set up finance committees whose task is to draw up a list of
‘financially viable’ (translation: those who can dip their hands into public
money they control) government workers and contractors who get to do work for
the government from their constituency. No one with a ‘matricule’ number is supposedly left out of the list, which is the
ultimate reference for those deserving of a promotion. When ministers are
arrested one cannot tell if they are victims or villains because they are
guilty of doing exactly what they are expected to do. No doubt they hoard and
stash away astronomic sums of money for themselves, but how much graft is too
much graft? Is it more justified to steal for the party than for the self? In
for a penny in for a pound. If the system allows them to steal whether for
themselves or for the party (where do you draw the line?) then there is no
limit to how much they can and will steal.
5) Corruption offers this regime the ultimate method of control.
The system is designed so everyone is guilty. There are no checks and balances
and rampant corruption is accepted as a way of life. Former US Ambassador Neils
Marquardt told reporters that in Cameroon “No
institution seems to be immune from this scourge, and corruption is being
practised and condoned by ordinary people including small children, their
parents, their grandparents, ordinary civil servants virtually everyone.”
Article 66 of the 1996 constitution requires public office holders (from the
President down) to declare their assets before and after holding office:
The President of the Republic, the Prime
Minister, Members of Government and persons ranking as such, the President and
Members of the Bureau of the National Assembly, the President and Members of
the bureau of the Senate, Members of Parliament, Senators, all holders of an
elective office, Secretaries-General of Ministries and persons ranking as such,
Directors of the Central Administration, General Managers of public and
semi-public enterprises, Judicial and Legal Officers, administrative personnel
in-charge of the tax base, collection and handling of public funds, all
managers of public votes and property, shall declare their assets and property
at the beginning and at the end of their tenure of office. The other categories of persons to whom the
provisions of this article shall apply and the conditions of implementation
thereof shall be determined by law.
But Article 66 has never been put in practice, not even once.
Law N0 003/2006 of 25th April 2006 on declaration of
assets has never come into force. As the holder of the all-important trust of
chief executive, Mr. Biya has failed to preach by example. His own personal
fortune is estimated to be several billions of dollars which easily makes him
the richest Cameroonian and ranks him among the richest men on earth. The
African Independent estimates that Mr. Franck Biya, a citizen of Monaco, reaped
about 9 billion francs each month from the ‘timber mafia’. It is said that when
the fish begins to rot from the head, the decay process cannot be reversed.
Consequently the president has lost the moral authority to discipline his
fellow citizens, who have recreated themselves in the image of their leader.
Ministers are known to operate five or six bank accounts in foreign countries
totalling hundreds of billions of francs. The fortunes of civil servants who
manage public votes have burgeoned overnight. School-leavers fresh out of ENAM
become major property owners within five years of their career. Anyone with a
‘signature’ is expected to receive a sinecure or commission for their
signature, usually up to thirty percent of the value of the payout. All who
have indulged in one act of corruption or another are consumed with a sense of
their guilt. Some former ministers and directors have sought temporary immunity
from prosecution by getting to parliament. Guilt brings a sense of
vulnerability, which in turn leads to sycophancy as the price for staying out
of jail. In order to stay his hand of judgement, the guilty must constantly
glorify the deity. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.*
The man who left minor seminary and now plays God over Cameroon will decide
whose sins are forgiven and who gets to atone for theirs. This explains why Mr.
Biya’s victims are generally perceived as either scapegoats, sacrificial lambs
thrown to the wolves – our creditors – to mollify their thirst for the blood of
the guilty or those who are punished for their hubris, especially those who
secretly covet the master’s throne, for there are sins that will be forgiven,
but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.*
Similarly, it is the widespread guilt which explains the determination by this
regime’s operatives to preserve the regime by any means necessary. The fear of
change may well be the overriding concern in our politics.
To effectively fight corruption, the state
must be pro-active – keep people from getting their hands on public money as
well as protect the treasury from the sleaze and malpractice. Customs and the
police should levy tariffs and fines in the form of treasury receipts and
tickets, and no cash should change hands. Besides, the cost of getting caught
has to be prohibitive. Punishment for criminal malfeasance has to be a
deterrent so that those who seek to build a fortune by stealing public money
should find the opposite. This means there must be an effective legal system in
place capable of protecting the citizenry from extortion and expropriation of
their property. But if the legal system itself is a bastion of corruption what
hope is there for the ordinary citizen? The civil service offers the greatest
job security imaginable. No one ever gets fired from this system of rascals and
their protégés. Anyone repeatedly found guilty of graft is at worst transferred
to some other part of the country where they can begin anew. Worse still, when
the laws condone and encourage corruption what hope is there for the country? According to a law recently enacted
by the Cameroonian parliament, individuals found guilty of corruption and
embezzlement of public funds will see the charges against them dropped if they
return the money. The new law, which was passed last December by the Cameroonian
National Assembly, states that if the object of the crime is restored, the
Public Prosecutor can drop the charges, upon written authorisation by the
minister of justice. Hence acts of corruption, if caught will be treated as
unauthorized loans and the culprit will walk away with not as much as a
reprimand. Obviously the Biya system has come full cycle: From ignoring the
existence of corruption, through grudging acknowledgement and non-action and
back to accommodating corruption. But the joke is on those who thought for a
minute that this regime could ever be serious about fighting corruption. Anyone
with a brain should know better: Corruption cannot fight corruption.
*Wikipedia
*The OECD
Anti-Bribery Convention was signed in
1997 and took effect in 1999, becoming what Transparency International calls
“the gold standard” in the fight against corruption.
*Romans 3:23 KJV
*Mark 3: 28-29
No comments:
Post a Comment