Accountability

Capital suggestion

Discretion and no accountability equals corruption. That is Dr Robert Klitgaard’s formula (Klitgaard is the world-renowned anti-corruption guru). And the formula’s applicability is global – wherever there is discretion sans accountability there would be corruption.

Transparency International defines corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”. Denmark keeps coming up as the least corrupt country on the face of the planet. Imagine: Denmark does not have an anti-corruption agency. Imagine: Denmark does not have an anti-corruption policy. Danish public office-holders either have little discretion and wherever there is discretion there is strict accountability. As a consequence, Denmark is the world leader in two dimensions of governance-government accountability and criminal justice.

Pakistan has one of the largest anti-corruption infrastructures in the world – the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), an Anti-Corruption Establishment in all four provinces, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission, the Wafaqi Mohtasib, the Federal Tax Ombudsman, Mohtasib-e-Aala offices in Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh, the Banking Mohtasib, Federal Insurance Ombudsman and the Federal Ombudsman for the Protection of Women against Harassment at Workplace.

Denmark is at number 1 and Pakistan is at number 117. What’s the difference between Denmark and Pakistan? Pakistan’s seven budgets between 2009 and 2015 had a built-in cumulative discretionary allocation of Rs6.7 trillion; that’s an average of about a trillion rupees a year. What’s the difference between Denmark and Pakistan? Pakistan’s public office-holders have a trillion rupees worth of discretion a year sans accountability. Danish public office-holders do not have much discretion and whatever discretion that does exist is subjected to strict accountability.

Corruption and terrorism coexist. Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria and India are the six countries with the highest impact of terrorism. Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria and India are also among the most corrupt. According to Transparency International, “The link between corruption and instability has never been clearer. In countries where corruption is rife, problems with security and terrorism are rife.”

Corruption fuels terrorism. This is how: “When disenfranchised populations see leaders amassing wealth unfairly through corruption while their governments fail to deliver services, people get angry. This frustration may make them turn to other bodies for protection, swelling the ranks of insurgent or organised crime groups. Corruption breeds inequality, which has been shown to increase violence.”

Corruption is a national security threat. Nigeria is at number 136 on the Corruption Perception Index. And corruption has been declared as the “singular most serious internal threat to national security”. Corruption and economic growth are linked. The 24 most corrupt countries in the world are also the poorest. And the 24 least corrupt countries are also the wealthiest.

There is empirical evidence that “corruption lowers investment and retards economic growth to a significant extent”. Corruption distorts the composition of government expenditure in the sense that “corruption tempts government officials to choose government expenditures less on the basis of public welfare than on the opportunity they provide” to fill private pockets.

“When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken” – Benjamin Disraeli

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad.

Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com Twitter: @saleemfarrukh