The Way Forward
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Good Governance and Development in Cameroon: The Way Forward
Scott Ticknor, Chief of the Political and Economic Section
U.S. Embassy Cameroon
Delivered November 14, 2008, at the Muna Foundation, Yaounde
For roundtable entitled “Good Governance and Development in Cameroon: The Way Forward”, sponsored by the American Bar Association, Section of International Law, Africa Committee
Good afternoon everyone. I am honored that the Africa Committee of the Section of International Law of the American Bar Association thought to include me in this distinguished panel.
Good governance is a frequent topic of discussion in Cameroon. I think we all know the consequences of poor governance. Cameroonians experience on a daily basis, in the bribes that have to be paid to policemen and tax collectors, in the system of corruption at play in getting into good schools or getting access to health care. It’s pervasive and corrosive. It costs average people their hopes for a better life, it undermines development and, because of widespread corruption in the security services, it also undermines Cameroon’s security.
Corruption has huge economic costs. The World Bank estimates that corruption costs developing countries 5% of their GDP. Corruption undermines the confidence of the international community and investors, including American investors, who would want to come and increase the potential wealth of the country. The erosion of trust also limits the ability of Cameroonians to travel for business, study or leisure, and is starkly demonstrated by the Embassy’s ten percent jump in our visa refusal rate over the last year. Unfortunately, in the past year Cameroon has slipped on the Transparency International, World Bank Doing Business, and Freedom House Indicators.
These reports get international attention, as does our recently published Millennium Challenge Corporation scorecard. This U.S. government scorecard, which draws from international data sources to rate all developing countries, scored Cameroon in reference to its income peer group. In FY2009 Cameroon scored lower than in FY2008 in 9 out of 17 indicators, including government effectiveness and control of corruption. It scored below the median for its income group in 13 out of 17 indictors. Clearly all of these reports point to the urgent need to improve the governance record in Cameroon.
Promoting good governance is not just about fighting corruption. It’s about promoting good institutions, such as an independent judiciary and parliament. It’s about ensuring that institutions are accountable and that there is political space for dissent. It’s about ensuring that systems function well. Cameroon’s poor ability to absorb foreign assistance or execute its budget, its weak implementation of projects and lack of success in significantly changing the investment climate is due in part to corruption. But it is also due to an inefficient bureaucracy, poor government planning and coordination, and slow decisionmaking for reasons not necessarily directly linked to corruption. Poor governance is the product of broader disfunctionalities in the political system.
So, what is the way forward? Unfortunately, I don’t have magic solutions to offer today. Cameroon has taken some positive steps. I am encouraged by the recent detention of four former ministers and a half dozen other senior officials who are alleged to have stolen tens of billions of CFA from the people of Cameroon. I am encouraged by the government’s desire to recover proceeds of corruption located overseas. It is important for all Cameroonians to bring this ill-gotten money back and put it to good public use. I am also encouraged by efforts to implement the new Criminal Procedure Code and by some progress in fiscal reform. There are many good people working to improve good governance in Cameroon, within the government and outside of it.
But I think we would all agree that much more work remains to be done. I look forward to seeing a more effective CONAC and more arrests of corrupt officials. I encourage the government to continue moving ahead with further investigations, audits, arrests and efforts to recover stolen funds. This will be more effective with stronger coordination between the various government agencies involved.
I look forward to seeing the implementation of Article 66 of the Cameroonian Constitution, requiring detailed declarations of personal income by senior public servants. This article has been in the constitution since 1996, the law was passed by parliament but the president has not issued the required decree. Issuing this decree would be a simple, powerful signal of good governance in action. So would publishing the long awaited update to the census, which is critical to planners and I am told is just awaiting Presidential approval.
More fundamentally, I also look forward to a change in the culture of acceptance toward corruption which pervades many parts of Cameroonian society.
In addition to combating corruption, I hope to see more progress in institution building and democratization. Some of this gets down to resource priorities. For example, a number of government institutions have asked the American Embassy for funds to buy computers to improve their accounting and transparency. We always ask ourselves – if good governance is a priority, why can’t the government buy these computers itself? This is a government with about $5 billion in HIPC debt relief resources. This is a government which enjoyed significantly higher revenues and foreign assistance in the first half of 2008 than during the same period last year, according to government figures. This is not a poor government or a poor country. There are poor people but this is not a poor country. It comes down to establishing priorities. I would argue that it should be a priority to equip institutions to function effectively and in accordance with good governance. This prioritization of resources, and the deficiencies in systems to use these resources, gets to the fundamental question of political will.
As you know, corruption is a universal problem, including in the United States. The U.S. Government takes a number of measures to limit corruption and enhance transparency and ethical practices.
In the United States, we counter corruption with systems of transparency, accountability, and checks on authority. We have a number of anti-corruption institutions, such as the Government Accounting Office, a Congressional institution which investigates the use and misuse of public funds. Every USG agency has its own internal Inspectorate General.
All government purchases and procedures must be published and available to the public and the media. Procedures exist for government employees to alert those in responsible positions of wrong doing, malfeasance, and corrupt ethical behavior without fear of reprisal. Senior officials in the U.S. Government are required to file an annual financial disclosure statement.
The U.S. federal government requires that officials abide by 14 principles of conduct. These include: Federal employees shall not use public office for private gain; employees must avoid actions that create the appearance that they are violating the law or ethical standards; they must avoid conflicting financial interests and conflicting personal or business relationships.
We also have guidelines to follow when it comes to gifts from individuals, companies, our own employees, and foreign governments. For example, I am not allowed to accept a gift worth over $25 from non-government sources, with strict limits also set on gifts from government officials.
Rules of ethics apply to all of our activities. The embassy sells excess items to the public through a transparent auction process, with participation by the Cameroon Office of Taxation and Customs. We have open and competitive tendering procedures. Embassy visa operations have a number of safeguards to prevent corruption, such as transparent accounting systems and computerized tracking.
We are constantly trying to improve our systems. Just this week, the Department of State created a new Consular Integrity Division to combat malfeasance and strengthen internal controls. President-elect Obama has already instituted the most extensive ever background check procedures for possible appointees in his administration, including a requirement to produce 63 personal and professional records. He has also promised to reform the federal procurement system and talked of expanding a “Google for Government” initiative to include a user-friendly website with details of all government spending.
Our systems are not foolproof: it seems almost every year somewhere in the world we encounter a case of a consular officer or local employee taking a bribe or accepting favors in exchange for favorable consideration to get a visa to visit or immigrate. But our laws are explicit and our enforcement exact. When found guilty of corruption, a person will be prosecuted, fired from his or her job and sent to prison for a long, long time.
The U.S. Government is committed to helping support Cameroonians in the pursuit of better management practices and transparency. Each year the U.S. Embassy sends a number of government officials, civil society activists, journalists and parliamentarians to the U.S. for programs on the themes of accountability, transparency and good governance. Our goal is to help you help your government and country. In addition, we organize a number of programs with American experts who travel to Cameroon or via digital video conference to share their experience with Cameroonians to promote good governance.
In the past year alone, the U.S. Embassy has organized good governance training for local police officers, military personnel, journalists, prosecutors and officials involved in combating financial crime. The American Bar Association has been part of this training, as it pertains to the issue of trafficking in persons, and I salute your work in this area. Ambassador Garvey has spoken out repeatedly and forcefully about corruption, most recently at a Legal Affairs workshop for the military. The U.S. Embassy has publicly explained our implementation of Presidential Proclamation 7750, which enables us to deny visas to individuals involved in corruption.
We provide financial assistance to the Changing Habits, Opposing Corruption (CHOC) effort, a multi-donor program designed to change habits linked to corruption in Cameroon. We help ensure that American companies abide by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a law which prohibits U.S. companies from engaging in any form of corruption. We know our competitors don’t all play by these rules, but U.S. companies are required to and we believe it is a strength of the American corporate culture.
The United States is determined to remain in this effort and to look for ways to contribute as broadly as possible to furthering good governance. I disagree with notions that corruption is somehow “in the culture.” Corruption reflects the breakdown of systems and is fueled by a climate of impunity. Bad practices are never inevitable, and can always be confronted. Effective mechanisms can prevail, as long as there are committed individuals and the political will is there to create and enforce high ethical standards.
It’s exciting to see tolerance for corruption changing in Africa -in September in Sierra Leone, for example, President Ernest Koroma became the first African president to publicly declare his assets. In Ghana, where I served before Cameroon, I saw within my three year tour passage of landmark whistle blower protection legislation, annual reports issued by the Supreme Court Justice on anti-corruption measures, and the creation of independent internal affairs units in the police and Customs. All of these acts took decisions at senior levels to signal, in different ways, that it is possible to change a culture of corruption.
I hope that today’s roundtable will help strengthen the political will in Cameroon and can help shine more light on the way forward, in fighting corruption and enhancing better overall governance.
Thank you very much.