AIM To help us convince others that culture is no excuse for corruption

Transcription

1 6 CULTURES AIM To help us convince others that culture is no excuse for corruption Traditional Cultures, Religion, and Bribes 1 Slides 1-15 (following Osborne, 1997), show similar attitudes to bribery in different religions and traditions. The similarities are not only that they all condemn bribery (providing a rule-based ethic for their believers), but they do not take this as self-evident as for the condemnation of murder or theft. Bribes are wrong because of their bad effects, giving a results-based ethic that all may share. Also, bribes hurt people, and are wrong because they damage human relationships. Gifts and Bribes 2 Many argue that traditions of giving gifts set a precedent for giving bribes. That has been refuted by Alatas, 1986, 1990; by Osborne, 1997 and others. Traditional gifts are transparent, of modest scale, with their benefits often shared among a group of elders for whom the transaction was more in the nature of a fee for a transaction. A licence fee or tax payment would be an equivalent in modern society. Boxes X and Y draw on experience in Africa. 3 Three theses may be applied to traditional society: 1) if it is argued that actions are sanctioned by tradition people are transparent them, so that they are not corrupt 2) widespread corruption is socially unsustainable, and if traditional societies are sustainable they are not very corruptand must change or decay. 4 In contemporary government business it is important to distinguish between allowable gifts and suspected bribes for public servants. To make it illegal for an official to accept a cup of coffee may bring the law into disrepute. The law needs to specify a limit, which may change according to time and circumstances corrupt. 5 Bribes are normally secret commissions. Foreign business representatives who argue that their gifts to the Minister or the official to win a contract are in accord with local tradition should be told to comply properly with tradition, and announce to the media how much they have given and to whom. Identifying a Public Service Ethic 5 For all, there is the challenge of living in different traditions or cultures in home, school, sports club, office, etc. We need to be loyal to several cultures at once. That leads us to seek the values and standards for a Public Service Ethic. Although it is likely that this will be similar for many countries, much as engineering standards are similar, it is better not to have the values imposed from outside but developed from within. That will lead us to consider our duties as managers and to Action Plans to involve staff in promoting ethics and preventing corruption. UNDP PARAGON Generic Training Module on Public Service Ethics and Accountability 1

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3 REFERENCES FOR QUOTATIONS IN THE SLIDES A. Advice to Moses, from his Father-in-law; -1,400, perhaps nearer -1,290 CE Exodus Chapter 18, verses 21, 22 Law of Moses, given when appointing officials and judges; Deuteronomy Chap 16, verse 19 About Samuel s sons, 1 Samuel Chapter 8, verses 3-5 quotations here and in sections G and H taken from the Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version, New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1989, some shortened by paraphrase B. Laws of Manu, Chapter 7, sections 123, 124, translated by Wendy Doniger and Brian K Smith, London, Penguin Classics, 1991, page 14 (I am indebted to Syed Hussein Alatas, op cit, page 14, for locating this reference) C. Confucius, as described in Syed Hussein Alatas, Corruption: Its Nature, Causes and Function, Aldershot, Hong Kong (etc), Avebury, 1990, page 54 D. Hsiao Ching, Syed Hussein Alatas, op cit, page 44 - quoting Pan Ku, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, Vol 1, translated Homer M Dubs, Baltimore, Waverly press, 1938, page 306 Wang an Shih, quoted by Syed Hussein Alatas, op cit, pages E. Buddha, The Teaching of Buddha, Tokyo, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, 630 th revised edition, 1990, pages 468, 470. F. Plato, The Laws, ed Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, New York, Pantheon, 1961, bok 12, sec.d G. John the Baptist, to tax collectors, Luke chapter 3, verses 12, 13; to soldiers, Luke chapter 3, verse 14; H. Jesus Christ with Zacchaeus, Luke chapter 19, verses 1-10 I. The Qur an, Al-Baqara (The Cow), Sura II, 188, 189, from The Noble Qur an summarized by Dr Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali and Dr Muhammad Muhsin Khan, based on text given by Muhammad Zafrulla Khan ; see also, for example, the Qur an, London, Curzon Press, 2 nd edition 1975, page 30 J. The Sayings, quoted in promotional video from the Anti-Corruption Agency, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, based on Hadis Riwayat Thauban, as narrated by Ahmad and Hakim; Ref Al-Fathu Kabir, Juzu 3, Jalalul Sayuti, Beirut, Lebanon. K. The Fatwa Alamagiri, T P Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, Lahore, Premier Book House, 1966, pages 43, 44, attributed by Hughes to Hamilton s Hidayah, Vol 3, page 332. (The teacher Jawi required the situation to be one of emergency.) L. Queen Elizabeth the First, recorded by Peter Hennessy, in C Campbell and B G Peters (Eds), Organizing Governance and governing organizations, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980, page 185. UNDP PARAGON Generic Training Module on Public Service Ethics and Accountability 3

4 ATTITUDES TO BRIBERY IN DIFFERENT TRADITIONS (Osborne, 1997) BOXES X and Y X GIFTS IN VILLAGE TRADITION: a personal experience I had to see the Chief. I was seeking permission for a geophysics experiment in Northern Ghana for which we needed to dig four holes in the ground, a hundred metres or so apart, place copper tubes in them, and connect them with wires to record small electric currents thought to image properties in the ionosphere. My local adviser and interpreter insisted I gave the Chief a bottle of whisky. I took it with reluctance, hiding it carefully in a brown paper bag. We sat on benches outside the Chief s hut with the people of the village gathered round. I paid my respects and explained my request as best I could. My adviser whispered, Give him the whisky. Now, I asked, with all these people here? Yes. I tried to pass it unobtrusively in its paper bag but my adviser protested: it had to come out of the bag and be given so that all could see. There was a murmur of appreciation from the people, and very happy smiles on the faces of the Chief s counsellors who sat nearby. On reflection I recognised that the transaction was the equivalent of a licence fee in a pre-literate society that kept no accounts. It differed from bribes in three ways. It was done so that all could see, not in secret. It was a benefit the Chief would share with his colleagues who were involved in the decision. It was modest in scale and did not make one person or group so wealthy as to be the envy of others. Village customs can be corrupted, but they provide no valid precedent or justification for bribery in the city. Y GROUP LOYALTY: a personal experience One of our funds was fully spent although my calculations showed this should not be so. A check revealed six payments of exactly the same amount, for the same contract. I was in a foreign country and we found that a locally employed accountant had developed a system to present invoices and have cheques signed that he would then cash for himself. He had escaped discovery for six years. He had grown rich and had many friends. He repaid some money he had taken, but sadly after more losses were discovered he committed suicide. His fellow nationals on our staff thought his misdeeds had been reported by their most senior local colleague and were intensely angry with him. Group loyalty was felt more strongly than their obligation to protect institutional funds. I boasted that I had detected the fraud, and helped rebuild relationships when I said at his funeral that I had liked and admired our accountant and appreciated his efforts to make good the losses, and that at the end all of us will need forgiveness. But I learnt the moral strength of personal loyalty within a group, possibly exacerbated because group members thought of themselves as poor nationals dealing with expatriates from a rich former colonial power. 4 UNDP PARAGON Generic Training Module on Public Service Ethics and Accountability

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