The first foe in any fight against corruption is cynicism. Corruption thrives where people consider it part of the natural order. And where corruption thrives, economies struggle, political systems decay, and people suffer. Any program to combat poverty must address corruption. Any effort to improve political systems must address corruption. Any oil company seeking rights to make money developing resources must address corruption.
Apparently, cynicism about corruption remains high. Transparency International (TI) this month released its annual Global Corruption Barometer, a public opinion survey indicating that people around the world lack confidence in anticorruption efforts by governments. According to the barometer, conducted for TI by Gallup International, 69% of nearly 60,000 people surveyed in 62 countries believe their governments are ineffective in fighting corruption or worse. At least some of this failure of confidence must flow from the belief that corruption is an incorrigible part of life.
Global cynicism
The cynicism is global. Shares of respondents calling government anticorruption efforts ineffective were 42% in Europe and 50% in North America. What’s more, 19% of North Americans, 15% of Asians, and 23% of Latin Americans believe their governments encourage corruption. The concern in North America and Western Europe is about widespread corruption, the survey showed; direct involvement in bribe-paying is lower in those regions than in developing countries. “In spite of the lack of day-to-day experience with bribe-paying,” TI said, “respondents in North America think that the business environment (85%) and political life (89%) are affected to a moderate or large extent by corruption.”
Changing the cynicism that fosters corruption requires leadership.
At the World Bank, Pres. Paul D. Wolfowitz has tried to make resistance to corruption in poor countries a priority. Under his administration, the bank has withheld financing of several projects because of suspected corruption. Lately, however, the institution has undermined his effort. In September, shareholder governments on the bank’s development committee took over management of the anticorruption program. Comments quoted in the New York Times by a former World Bank senior vice-president revealed a troubling attitude. Saluting anticorruption efforts as “an essential part of development finance,” the former official nevertheless said, “The bank should not overemphasize its anticorruption agenda at the expense of other policies required for development.” In other words, acknowledge that corruption is a problem, but don’t let concern about it stop the money flow. No wonder people are cynical.
On Dec. 11, outgoing United Nations Sec. Gen. Koffi Annan, in a speech at the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Independence, Mo., described five lessons he’s learned in his decade of UN leadership: collective responsibility, global solidarity, the rule of law, mutual accountability, and multilateralism. He didn’t mention corruption. Since the multibillion-dollar Oil-for-Food scandal, of course, corruption has been an especially touchy subject at the UN. While Annan wasn’t personally implicated in that mess, it’s hard to imagine how lessons on the subject failed to make his top-five lessons list. The omission relegates corruption to the nether realms of UN concerns and makes the Conference of States Parties of the UN Convention Against Corruption, which was meeting in Jordan as Annan spoke, look like a forgettable sideshow. It deserves more support than that from the UN boss.
An example?
Annan’s speech irked some commentators because of the backhanded scolding it gave the US on subjects such as human rights, the use of military force, and unilateralism in foreign affairs. Some commentators saw a rebuke of the Bush administration in Annan’s appeal for “far-sighted American leadership.” Maybe. Or maybe Annan was just recognizing US stature and the obligations that come with it. One of those obligations must be to set a standard of zero toleration for corruption in any form at any time. As recent scandals in Congress show, this area needs work.
With words and action, the oil and gas industry must respond to any lapse it sees into popular or official cynicism on corruption. Its right to work depends greatly on economic and social benefits associated with resource development. Corruption dissipates those benefits. It’s not inevitable. It’s intolerable.