Shaky stand on construction corruption!
(By Yohannes Woldegebriel)
Nearly a year ago, in a discussion with stake holders on a draft national report of the African peer review chaired by H.E Tefera Walewa, a senior official from the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission announced citing a study supposedly conducted by an expert in the World Bank that “the incidence of corruption in the construction sector is very small if not none.” Again citing the same source H.E Prime Minister Meles Zenawi also repeated the same statement weeks later in his usual briefing to journalists.
Last Thursday, a panel discussion was held at Ras Hotel under the theme “Corruption and the Construction sector” which was jointly organized by the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and a local NGO called Transparency Ethiopia. I was stunned with the sudden turn of events to participate on what has been told and “proved” to be a problem that was“rather negligible” or “almost nonexistent” only a year ago. While heading to the meeting hall, it was hard to persuade myself if I can get anything different from what I and many participants of the Ghion Conference were informed.
In a dramatic overturn of the previous official position of the commission as well as the government on the issue, in his key note address, Deputy Commissioner, Addisu Mengistu, encouraged participants to “meticulously identify acts from what is widely believed among the principal sectors that are prone to corruptions.” The Deputy Commissioner also underlined that the construction sector is one of the major sectors worth citing for corrupt practices.
Responding to the cited “learned” finding of the World Bank expert and the comment of the commission’s official, I remember making a short remark that such conclusion was unpalatable and objectionable at best. I also insisted that despite a plethora of corrupt acts, victims must have resorted to avoidance as the most preferred and safest dispute resolution mechanism rather than bringing such acts to the attention of government bodies that are either not reliable or do not command confidence to vindicate the harm done and possibly to prevent risks on personal loss by initiating litigation.
During the panel discussion at the Ras Hotel, two papers under the title “Corruption in the Construction Sector” were presented touching upon international and local practices. Both papers attempted to demonstrate the types and modus operandi of corrupt acts as well as their manifestationsin the public and private sector. The presentations were quite superb and simple. Since the presenters themselves are professional civil engineers that are well aware of the various problems of the sector, they were able to pinpoint those areas vulnerable to corrupt acts.
However, before proceeding to present his paper, one of the presenter brieflyremarked on the controversial issue whether or not corruption exist in Ethiopia and questions on its magnitude was raised once again. Apparently, the “learned” finding of the World Bank expert has left its enduring legacy on our professionals as much as our public officials and perhaps, fear or most plausibly, courteous reverence to high officials statements might have revolved around fellow Ethiopians to differ from an official positions already maintained.
We all know from our daily fact of life that there exist corruptions everywhere and more so in the construction sector. This sector consumes the biggest share of the national capital budget and undeniably noticeableachievements have been scored over the last decade. This sector has also opened up new opportunity to the creation of numerous local contractors, consulting architects and engineers and boosted their capacity. At the same time, there are lots of messes and disappointments that are not yet addressed and waiting for justice to be done before matters get the worst leading to the eventual decadence of the sector.
Corruption is one such problem that requires the concerted action of all stakeholders involved. In the current Ethiopian context, major procurement for goods, services and works in general and construction works in particular is made by Public bodies. The construction of public buildings, roads, bridges, hydro electric power and water irrigation projects are almost all public projects. Therefore, most construction projects are publicly funded and the client is federal or regional government bodies. The role and contribution of private bodies in such construction works as an owner or client is quite minimal and insignificant. When we are talking corruption in the construction sector, we are primarily and precisely talking corruption among public officials andprivate individuals and not only on one of them.
The presenters of the papers aptly described the various phases of construction works and numerous steps where corrupt acts are committed. It was noted that the sector often suffer from corrupt practices at various levels of the construction project such as planning and design, prequalification and tendering, project execution, operation and maintenance. Although it is vital that government procurement is guided by laws, regulations, directives and contract documents, assuming that these laws are perfect enough and properly applied, these legal instruments persecannot guarantee to contain corrupt acts. This is because the temptation for corruption emanates from human mind and only high moral and ethical standards among public officials and private individuals involved can only help tackle corrupt acts.
One of the most important issues raised in the discussion was that despite the legal principle on the equality of contracting parties,the tripartite type of construction contract in publicly funded projects, public bodies exercise more authority. For instance, in some of the conditions of contracts issued by the federal government and adopted by some regions, certain regional bureaus are contracting parties as well as tribunals entitled to resolve disputes. Such formulation of contracts defies the most basic contract principle of equality of contracts.
Given the huge public budget earmarked for construction works and the big financial turnover observed in the sector that could create millionaires if not billionaires overnight, It has always been difficult for me to accept “the fact” or “the argument” that corruption in the construction sector is very minimal in Ethiopia. Historical as well as contemporary accounts prove that even ministers of religious institutions that are preaching and teaching the good messages and revelations of our creators, saviors and prophets in the Bible and Koran have not been immune from corrupt acts. Therefore, as if the construction sector is propelled by public officials and private individuals with divine origin it is hard to accept official announcements that corruption is minimal.
It is quite interesting that the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission made a sudden shift and abandonment of its previous adamant stand without official and ceremonial confession for its wrong. Let us hope that however late it might be, the commission will start to lend its ears at least at a rhetoric level and dare to address the ordeals of most members of the private sector to create an atmosphere of consensus for collaboration and understanding to ensure propriety in the sector for common good.
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