Memorable Quotes on the Cost of Corruption

I have been collecting these quotes on corruption since 2004, and will add some current ones as I find them.  It is amazing how various government leaders can say or write these quotes, then not act on their wisdom...
vj

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10/3/2008 - From a Reuters article about corruption problems in the Red Crescent, an Iraqi aid organization like the Red Cross.  The lesson learned is that it is harder to raise donations if your charity is accused of internal corruption.

"Rumours of the Red Crescent being infested with corruption mean quite a lot of countries that wanted to donate now are hesitant: should we give, should we not?" Masum said.

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Sept. 23, 2008 - Testimony before the US Senate Democratic Policy Committee by Salam Adhoob, Former Chief Investigator (Baghdad), Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity.

"When the United States government ignores corruption and waste at the highest levels in Iraq, the government does a grave disservice to the American people. American taxpayers are cheated. American soldiers are killed. And the American mission in Iraq is undermined. All of this sends a terrible message to Iraqis and millions of people in the Middle East, who look to the United States to show us how democracy should work."

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Quote from Jacob Steelman's review of Steve Berkman's book "Corruption, Mismanagement and Malinvestment at World Bank"

Instead the (World Bank) money is put into the hands of government officials and leaders who historically have looted their national treasuries. Ten percent of the $20 billion disbursed by the Bank each year is lost to corruption and it is estimated that 25 to 35% of total lending is lost to corruption. While the corruption takes many forms of course here are just a few examples:

• Shell companies paid for goods and services that were never delivered
• Tainted pharmaceuticals bought by the Bank for distribution to the public
• Faulty AIDS testing kits bought by the Bank
• Bank benchmark certification achievement for a hospital built with Bank funds when in fact all that existed was a hole in the ground
• Bribes and kickbacks being paid to senior government officials while suppliers go unpaid
• Farmers aid programs billed for hundreds of thousands of dollars for office furniture, vehicles, lodging, air conditioners, fencing, household furniture rather than aid to the farmers

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Ft. Worth Star-Telegram - July 12, 2008

All told, the (Iraqi) government will spend an additional $1.8 billion annually on salaries for its employees, all of it from oil revenues, said Ala Abdullah, a member of the parliament’s finance committee

Yet the new Iraqi effort runs a high risk of failure. The government is disorganized, fears of favoritism remain, and the shadow of corruption haunts every step. "Money is not a problem," al-Maliki said at a recent gathering of tribal chiefs in the southern city of Basra. "But we must put it in honest hands to spend."

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  "Corruption hurts the poor disproportionately by diverting funds intended for development, undermining a government's ability to provide basic services, feeding inequality and injustice, and discouraging foreign investment and aid".

Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General
in his statement on the adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations Convention against Corruption ( probably about 2005 or 2006)

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The defeat of the major terrorist organizations ( in Iraq) is bringing the spotlight back to Iraq (and the Arab worlds) primary problem; corruption. With reconstruction money and police pouring into Sunni Arab towns for the first time in seven years, there's been some culture shock. The Sunni Arabs have long been accustomed to the old rules (which Saddam Hussein exploited artfully) whereby local strongmen were paid off, and then these tough guys did whatever it took (murder, kidnapping, mutilation, etc) to keep the locals quiet. The new Shia government is trying (with mixed success) to get away from the old ways. It isn't easy. Centuries of tradition don't willingly change overnight. There will be more violence, as corrupt locals decide old school customs are worth killing for. Actually, they always have been, which is why most Arab nations are police states, where murder, or the threat of it, is the final arbiter of disputes with the government. Meanwhile, reconstruction efforts are delayed, or derailed, by rampant theft, lies and deception supplied by local officials.
Source for THIS StrategyPage.com article on June 27, 2008

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U.S. soldiers who negotiate contracts told FOX News that they, too, have seen that corruption. Some say they have been offered bribes and have promptly thrown the offenders off base.

"There is corruption in every country, but there is more in Iraq," said one contractor from the Jamila Market area. "Nobody tried to bribe me, personally ... but I see the people trying to work. And the contractors and the obstacles [are] slowing down their work. All Iraqis know there is corruption. Even the government knows that."

Source - FoxNews article HERE.   (June 27, 2008)

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"Iraq is riding an oil bonanza. It has more money than it can responsibly spend. Last year, Baghdad spent about half of its capital budget; in the provinces, the figures were even lower. Iraq doesn't need money, al-Maliki said recently, but it needs technical assistance to execute its budget efficiently, making sure the money isn't wasted or lost to corruption. That's a strong signal for Washington: After more than five years of underwriting the war, the American taxpayer deserves some relief."

                             Chicago Tribune op-ed June 18, 2008

(Note: Since 2004, the Govt. of Iraq's Ministry of Finance has resisted all attempts to use a government wide budgeting software system designed by Bearingpoint and rolled out to all Ministries in 2005.  In 2007 or early 2008, a BearingPoint implementation specialist was kidnapped and I believe BearingPoint halted further work at the Ministry of Finance which was the main resister - vj )

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Sec State Condi Rice during June 22, 2006 speech on "U.S. Foreign Assistance Reform: Achieving Results & Sustainability in Support of Transformational Diplomacy"

Getting from Here to There – A New Strategic Framework

• The new framework is built around five priority objectives that, if achieved, support our overarching goal by helping move countries toward self-sufficiency and strengthening strategic partnerships. 
• The priority objectives are:
  • Peace and security – preventing, mitigating, and recovering from internal or external conflict;
  • Governing justly and democratically – making governments accountable to their people by controlling corruption, protecting civil rights, and strengthening rule of law;
  • Investing in people – including appropriate expenditure on health, education, and environment;
  • Economic growth – including reduction in barriers to entry for business, suitable trade policy, fiscal accountability;
  • Humanitarian assistance – emergency relief and rehabilitation

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At a conference in Paris on Thursday (June 12, 2008), donors ranging from the United States to the World Bank pledged more than $21 billion for Afghanistan.

Benefactors that have poured billions into Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban nearly seven years ago want greater coordination of the handouts and larger involvement by Afghan President Hamid Karzai's administration.

"Corruption threatens to ruin everything so many have worked so hard to build," Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller told the conference, which drew delegates from about 80 nations and international organizations.

Source

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May 20,2008 -  Cal Thomas's column today in the Orlando Sentinel is talking about how to fix the GOP "brand" to halt the loss of GOP Congressional and Senate offices.  He quotes Rep. Mike Pence, who says "To renew our majority, we must offer this nation a compelling vision of fiscal discipline and reform...".

To me, fiscal discipline includes the "discipline" to STOP payments of aid to foreign countries who do not support and implement active, and successful anti-corruption programs.   vj

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from USAID 2002
No problem does more to alienate citizens
from their political leaders and
institutions, and to undermine political
stability and economic development, than
endemic corruption among the
government, political party leaders, judges,
and bureaucrats.

USAID, Foreign Aid in the National Interest, 2002

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From:  VOA article on DPC Testifiers on Iraq Corruption   
May 12, 2008 - Arthur Brennan briefly served as director of the State Department's Office of Accountability and Transparency in Baghdad last year.

In testimony before a Democratic Policy Committee hearing on May 12, 2008, which no Republicans attended, Brennan accused the Bush administration of thwarting the efforts of his office to probe and fight corruption in Iraq. He said the administration did not aggressively pursue corruption out of concern that that could undermine its relationship with the Iraqi government.

"The Department of State's actual policy not only contradicted the anti-corruption mission, but indirectly contributed to and has allowed corruption to fester at the highest levels of the Iraqi government," he said.

State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told VOA it is not true that the department condones corruption in Iraq.

In an exchange with Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Brennan said U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, has avoided addressing the problem.

MCASKILL: "It is your testimony today that Ambassador Crocker knows the level of corruption in the Iraqi government and has failed to be honest with the American people about it?"

BRENNAN: "If he does not know than he is negligent. If he does know, then he is intentionally misleading Congress and the American public."

Brennan said corruption has cost Iraq and U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars, and warned that some of the money could be funding insurgents.

James Mattil, who served as chief of staff in the Office of Accountability and Transparency from October 2006 to October 2007, agreed that the Bush administration had not done enough to press the Iraqi government to fight corruption. "It seems reasonable to conclude that the reasons are either gross incompetence, willful negligence or political intent on the part of the Bush administration and more specifically, the State Department," he said.

Mattil said the Office of Accountability and Transparency was dismantled last December.

Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat and chairman of the committee, says he plans to send a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seeking a response to Monday's testimony.

State Department's Casey, who spoke to VOA on the phone, said Brennan and Mattil are entitled to their opinions, but it is not true that Washington has ignored the issue of corruption in Iraq. He said the United States takes the issue very seriously, and has worked with the Iraqis for a very long time to combat it.

Source: VOA News

VJ's Opinion: Just read the last three SIGIR.mil reports on State's inactivity in implementing anti-corruption programs.  I agree with Brennan and Mattil, who went there 6+ months after I left Baghdad.
VJ

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REMARKS BY U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE

TOPIC: FOREIGN POLICY

Sciences Politique University, Paris,France

11:04 A.M. EST, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2004

States where corruption and chaos and cruelty reign invariably pose threats to their neighbors, threats to their regions, and potential threats to the entire international community.

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“Palestinian leaders must fight corruption, encourage free enterprise, rest true authority with the people and actively confront terrorist groups.”

CNN.com - President Bush – speech to National Defense Institute, March 8, 2005

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In its report, PERC said the issue of corruption could make or break

Indonesia.

It said "relative outsider" Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was elected Indonesian president last year partly because voters were "disgusted with the corruption of an entrenched, secular elite."

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The Philippine government lost about $48 billion to corruption over a 20-year period, according to a World Bank study in 2000. US-based investment bank Morgan Stanley placed the losses at $204 billion between 1965 and 2001.

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On Ukraine Corruption - Baltimore

Sun, Feb. 11, 2005 – Trudy Ruman

 

At Davos, Mr. Yushchenko talked of a new day for

Ukraine, with a free press, rule of law and a crackdown on a sickening level of corruption.

Mr. Yushchenko wants to change the way Ukraine's government operates. He declared at Davos that foreign investors would no longer have to pay bribes to do business. He promised to reform a system in which a phone call from a government official to a judge could ensure a verdict.

Such brave pledges can't sit well with Mr. Putin. in Russia - His  is also a haven for corruption, and many journalists there have fallen victim to unsolved murders.

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 New York Times

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 - President Bush on Wednesday increased the

United States tsunami relief pledge to $950 million, nearly tripling

America's contribution.

 Knowing of concerns among lawmakers about potential waste and corruption, Mr. Natsios said that all of the money Congress appropriated (for Tsunami Relief) would be well spent with "very high levels of accountability."

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NYT Feb 11   

AFRICA -

KENYA

: ANGER AT MINISTER'S RAPE REMARK
Outraged women marched on the office of

Kenya's justice minister, Kiraitu Murungi, and demanded his resignation after he made a comment that the women said made light of rape. Mr. Kiraitu told reporters on Wednesday that the pressure that foreign governments were putting on Kenya to fight corruption was "like raping a woman who is already too willing." Kenya's foreign minister, Chirau Ali Mwakwere, also came under criticism, for calling the British high commissioner to Kenya, Edward Clay, an "incorrigible liar" and suggesting that he had drunk "one too many" before he gave a scathing speech last week condemning Kenya's fight against graft. Marc Lacey (NYT)
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Washington Post – Feb 11

The Palestinians know that Arafat's war left them a legacy of death, corruption, misery, international isolation and social ruin as the myriad militias he created roam the streets, terrorizing their own people. That is why they elected Mahmoud Abbas, who campaigned against the intifada.

 Feb. 13, 2005

During the prior week’s meeting of the Anti-Corruption working Group at the US Embassy, Baghdad, a State Department representative noted that Mr. Allawi (who at this point is far from certain to retain his post as Prime Minister after election results are published) had recently stated that fighting corruption is the “number one priority” of the Iraqi government. ( It used to be number 3 in 2004 - vj).

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2005-02-22

Minister of Housing Omar Al Damluji denies corruption in his ministry (Al Nahdhah)