December 9, 2006, marks the World Anti Corruption Day.
With this day in mind Transparency International Botswana would like to send a message and share some useful information with Botswana Government, Business community, civil society and the general public.
Transparency International has in the past three months launched 3 important reports that relate to corruption in countries across the world.
In October 2006, TI launched the Bribe Payers Index (BPI) which looks at the perceived propensity of companies from the 30 leading exporting countries to bribe abroad and ranks them. According to the BPI, companies from Switzerland, Sweden and Australia are perceived to be the least likely to pay bribes while companies from China, India and Russia are perceived to be the most likely to bribe. Since Botswana does not feature in the worlds’ top 30 exporters, it is not covered by the survey. However, Botswana is affected because it imports those goods and services from the export giants. Worth noting is that China is increasing its business influence in Botswana and Transparency International Botswana would like to urge Botswana government to ensure that correct measures relating to transparency and corruption prevention are put in place, not only in dealings with China but with all the export companies. Botswana businesses should also adhere to good governance and best practice in their business dealings. The general public should be alert on suspicious business dealings and blow the whistle whenever that occurs.
The 2006 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) was launched in November 2006. In this survey, experts from independent and reputable institutions such as the World Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Africa Governance Report and the Worlds Economic Forum and other business surveys sort people’s opinion on how the public sector and politicians are corrupt. Countries are then rated between 0 and 10 with zero being the most corrupt and 10 being the least corrupt. Out of 163 countries covered by the survey, Botswana ranks 37th and it shares the position with Cyprus with a score of 5.6 out of 10. What is worth noting is that in Africa, Botswana comes out at the top and this has been the case ever since Botswana started to be covered by the survey in 1998.
However, the current 5.6 score is a drop from the past years as follows:
2005 (5.9)
2004 (6.0)
2003 (5.7)
2002 (6.4)
2001 (6.0)
2000 (6.0)
1999 (6.1)
1998 (6.1)
The drop in the score could be due to two factors: one, perceptions that reflect that corruption in Botswana is growing or, two, changes in the methodologies used in the survey. Transparency International Botswana intends to follow this up and further appeal that if the drop is due to perceptions, then government should take it serious and strive to put corrective measures.
The Global Corruption Barometer was launched on December 7 2006. It is a public opinion survey that assesses the general public’s perception and experience of corruption. This year’s barometer polls about 59 000 people in 62 countries and Botswana is not covered. The barometer asks people about their opinion with regard to which public sectors are the most corrupt and which spheres of life e.g. family, business or politics are mostly affected by corruption. The public is also asked how they feel about their government’s commitment to fight corruption. The 2006 GCB focussed on the payment of bribes relating to who pays bribes and to whom and how much. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of business people who complain that they have to pay bribes to get services that are due to them from public officers. In addition, there are business people who complain about certain politicians/Members of Parliament using their positions to influence decisions on awarding tenders. TI Botswana urges and advises such people to refrain from such actions and let transparency and fairness prevail. Unlike the CPI, the GCB is a survey of the general public and not experts.
More than 1000 delegates from all over the world attended the IACC in Guatemala held in November 2006. One of the highlights of the conference was the signing of a declaration of a region free of corruption by the presidents of Central American states of Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica. Botswana and her neighbours in the Southern African region (SADC) could do likewise ÔÇô combine efforts to combat corruption as a region.
What was noticeable in one of the workshops of the conference was that Botswana has not yet ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption and the African Union Convention Against Corruption. We urge Botswana government to take these conventions seriously and ratify them because they are part of the integrity systems that are used to measure how countries perform in terms of corruption.
It is not only about the two conventions, we also urge government to explore ways on how to take part in other initiatives such as the Extraction Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) which is an initiative aimed at responsible accounting and management of the revenues generated by oil, gas and the mining industry. This calls for integrity issues such as transparency in the contracts signed between extracting companies and governments, the payments by companies into government’s treasuries and active participation by host governments in the process of extraction. This comes at a time when there are reports about extraction companies having a lot of political influence in host governments. Chevron has raised its reputation by supporting this initiative and we urge other companies doing business in Botswana to emulate them.
*Mosupi Bonanza Garebatho is Executive Director of Transparency International Botswana
