Sir, - John O'Shea (World View, August 12th,) rightly draws our attention to the scandal of corruption in the countries of the developing world. However, his conclusion that withholding development aid would be an incentive to these countries to tackle corruption may lead readers to believe that the misappropriation of this aid is the major form of corruption being perpetrated. The reality is far different.
According to a recent publication by the Corner House, Corruption, Privatisation and Multinationals, a conservative estimate of bribes paid by western businesses operating in the developing world in 1999 was US$80 billion, roughly the amount the UN estimates is required to eliminate world poverty. This figure also contrasts with the total amount of development assistance from all countries that year of US$54 billion, significantly less than the figure for bribery and corruption. Even allowing for a certain percentage of "leakage" from aid budgets, it is clear that the source of this problem is not development assistance.
It is important to reflect that without those willing to bribe there would, in fact, be little opportunity for corruption. As is so often the case, the source of a major problem in the developing world lies here in the rich world and not in the south. In recognition of this the OECD countries introduced in 1999 the anti-bribery convention, signed by 34 member-countries. The convention makes bribery an extraditable criminal offence. Despite this, a recent survey of business people in the OECD countries revealed that just 6 per cent of those surveyed were aware of this convention.
Rather than cutting development assistance, applying such aid in a more targeted way to increase awareness of civil, political and economic rights, promoting democratisation and strengthening civil society, thus making political leaders more accountable, will make a major contribution to reducing significantly the levels of corruption in the developing world.
As our own experience in Ireland has shown, it is the strength of our own democracy and legal processes which have kept our levels of corruption far below those in Nigeria, the Philippines and so on. We must continue to assist those countries to develop in a way that they too can have confidence in their state institutions to ensure justice for all their people. - Yours, etc.,
Justin Kilcullen, Director, Trocaire, Booterstown Avenue, Co Dublin.