DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-LATIN AMERICA: Call For An Alliance Against Corruption

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 27 1998 (IPS) - Most Latin Americans list corruption as their most pressing concern and complain that their legal systems are flawed – a combination they see as hindering development and eroding the credibility of democracy.

That is one of the key conclusions to emerge from a study by Transparency International, which served as the basis for its book “Time for Transparency in Latin America; the Public Office Anti- Corruption Manual.”

Transparency International’s new book suggests the need for an alliance between civil society, business and international, national and municipal public institutions, that would give rise to a movement against corruption, a major obstacle to poverty eradication.

In a 1997 Gallup poll, corruption headed the list of citizen worries in Latin America. Between 55 and 75 percent of the region’s inhabitants had a poor opinion of the legal systems in their countries, which should serve as a safeguard against those who use the state to forward their own particular interests.

Luis Moreno, a former federal prosecutor in Argentina and president of the Latin American branch of Transparency International, said at the presentation of the book in Buenos Aires that public opinion in the region had come to the understanding that poverty and shortcomings in healthcare, education and social security were directly linked to corruption.

“After many years of democracy in the region, we see a problem of poor quality of public institutions and a state that is not at the service of the citizens. And in spite of the widespread market economy, focal points of corruption persist in the public administration.”

Moreno added that the Catholic Church and international lending institutions – in which governments, rather than citizens, are represented, he pointed out – are beginning to take an interest in the question, as they become increasingly aware of the extent of the squandering of resources.

Transparency International was founded by Peter Eigen of Germany. While serving as director of the World Bank in Africa, Eigen reached the conclusion that the fight against corruption was a pre-condition for comtting poverty. But he also realised that it was impossible for him to undertake that task from within the World Bank, due to its obligations to governments, Moreno said Tuesday.

But in recent years, the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and International Monetary Fund have increasingly begun to see corruption as a hurdle to the equitable distribution of resources and adequate performance by the state.

Based n the responses obtained through surveys of the business community, government officials and citizens, Transparency International draws up a list ranking nations according to levels of corruption. A number of Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela, are high on the list.

“If wsee corruption as a global disease, we can say that some countries have gotten it under control while others are overrun by an epidemic. In Argentina and Venezuela, like in the majority of developing nations, an epidemic is the rule. Developing countries are in and of themselves systems of latent corruption,” says the Anti-Corruption Manual.

Corruption has an enormous economic impact, pushing up the cost of goods and services and sweling the foreign debt, as well as giving a boost to unrealistic mega-projects.

In Argentina, for example, the Gerenciar consultancy calculates that a full five percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is leached off by corruption.

Corruption also reproduces social inequality by keeping state resources from reaching the neediest sectors, says Transparency International.

The areas most vulnerable to fraud are public services, bidding for contracts, tax collection, the naming of civil servants and local government administrations, and the forms corruption takes range from abuse of power, acceptance of bribes or illegal commissions, tax evasion, fraud, graft and nepotism, the manual adds.

Moreno cited examples of the formation of alliances against corruption. In the western Argentine province of Mendoza, a public hearing was held in which common citizens, members of the business community and govenment officials discussed how the winning bid for the contract to computerise the social security system would be chosen.

“It is a question of replacing structural corruption with a system of integrity,” he concluded, “a global change to impede the distortion of economic incentives and guarantee that funds earmarked for health, education and social security reach their destinations.”