Economy & Trade, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

NICARAGUA: Despite Efforts, Corruption Still a Problem

José Adán Silva

MANAGUA, Nov 19 2009 (IPS) - Two national surveys and the latest report on perceptions of corruption by Transparency International support the view that a culture of graft continues to undermine the foundations of Nicaraguan society, in spite of efforts to fight the problem in the last few years.

In the latest report by global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, published Tuesday in Berlin, Nicaragua did not improve on last year’s ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index.

Based on six surveys carried out in the country, Nicaragua’s 2009 score is 2.5 on a scale of zero (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption). This is the third worst score in Latin America, above only Venezuela, with 1.9 points, and Haiti, with 1.8 points.

“Throughout Latin America, which makes up the bulk of low-scoring countries in the (Americas) region, weak institutions, poor governance practices and the excessive influence of private interests continue to undermine best efforts to promote equitable and sustainable development,” the report says.

But in Nicaragua, the results of two national studies are a particular cause for alarm.

The Joint Donor Anti-Corruption Trust Fund in Nicaragua – made up of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Norwegian and Dutch governments through their embassies and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – presented two studies last week on perceptions of the problem in this Central American country.

A study titled Diagnosis of Corruption in Nicaragua was “based on 60 interviews in a range of sectors, including the government,” said Chilean researcher Miguel Peñailillo, who conducted the study.

One out of four interviewees said they had personally given bribes to expedite public and private red tape. And at least three out of 10 citizens said they had been asked for kickbacks at public institutions between 2006 and 2009.

All the evidence “indicates that corruption has not disappeared, but has simply changed form,” Peñailillo told IPS.

Prior to 1990, the chief form was politically-motivated appropriation and confiscation of assets belonging to opponents of the leftwing regime of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which came to power in 1979 after defeating the Somoza family dynasty that had ruled Nicaragua for over 40 years.

During the government of President Violeta Chamorro (1990-1997), corruption was seen in the process of the privatisation of public assets, and through compensation payments for confiscations carried out under the Sandinista administration.

Under the government of President Arnoldo Alemán (1997-2002), of the rightwing Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC), money from the public treasury was openly squandered and misused, with flagrant displays of luxury and distribution of backhanders to civil servants and members of the governing party, the study says.

The administration of President Enrique Bolaños (2002-2007), also of the PLC, was characterised by influence peddling in favour of members of the business community, and tax exemptions for economic groups linked to public officials, according to the authors of the Diagnosis.

More than 2.5 billion dollars apparently vanished from government coffers during the prior administrations, the authors say.

The study says that the present government of Sandinista President Daniel Ortega has failed to enforce anti-corruption and transparency measures in public programmes.

It also points to favouritism towards companies and deals linked to FSLN officials or party members, political control of the judicial branch and oversight agencies, and the discretionary handling of huge funds from the oil agreement reached with the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, for which public accounts have not been given.

In Peñailillo’s view, institutionalised corruption has affected not only the resources of this country of 5.7 million people, 48 percent of whom are poor, but has also corroded social standards that are needed for progress.

“The study indicates that one of the worst social effects of corruption going unpunished is that it creates the perception that corruption is more lucrative than honesty,” the researcher said.

“One’s word used to be sacred in Nicaraguan culture, but it has lost value. In the past, your given word used to be enough to close a deal or seal an agreement, but now no one trusts anyone else’s word any more,” he said.

The second study is an updated version of a social audit that has been carried out four times since 1998, on Perception of Corruption in Local Public Services for 2009. It was based on 6,050 household interviews around the country, Jorge Aróstegui, the head of the survey team, told IPS.

This report paints a picture of permanent, generalised demands for kickbacks from ordinary people whenever they want access to public services provided by municipal governments, health centres, schools, local courts and police stations.

The practice goes on at the highest levels of all branches of government, and also in social services involving middle and lower ranking civil servants, according to the studies.

Both reports, carried out in collaboration between the Joint Donors Anti-Corruption Trust Fund and the Ortega administration, provide a scientific basis for the country to “determine strategic priorities in the fight against corruption,” the Norwegian ambassador to Nicaragua, Tom Tyrihjell, told IPS.

This country needs the state to take on a leading role in the fight against corruption, setting an example by strengthening democracy through public transparency, said the diplomat, speaking on behalf of the donor agencies.

Over the past decade, Nicaragua has taken some steps to reduce corruption, which have improved the transfer of funds from the central government’s budget to local governments, but there is still room for improving democratic control of the budget and public administration, he said.

Despite its efforts, Nicaragua still has one of the worst corruption perception indices in the region, the ambassador said.

The Nicaraguan authorities took a positive view of the results of the studies.

According to Attorney General Hernán Estrada, in spite of the profound crisis in social values that the country has experienced since 1997, the situation has been improving under the FSLN, which was returned to power in 2007, and which launched a zero tolerance campaign against corruption.

“The country still has its weaknesses, but these are mostly to be found in the other branches of state, rather than in the government of President Ortega and its public institutions,” Estrada told IPS.

The dean of the Faculty of Legal Studies at the Jesuit-run Central American University, Manuel Aráuz, said one of the main causes of corruption today is that institutions have become politicised.

“Justice officials do not apply the legal instruments that exist for punishing corruption. Instead they protect members of their own parties who are accused of misdeeds,” he said.

“There is a perceptible feeling that the rule of law is not respected. The country has good laws, but they are not strictly enforced,” said Aráuz, the author of several studies on corruption and regulations in Nicaragua.

In the social audit presented by the donor agencies, the judicial branch, especially the local courts, are highlighted as one of the public services most prone to the practice of bribery by 32 out of every 100 households surveyed, Aráuz said.