Dark Side
Quiet Corruption Exacts a Hefty Toll on Africa
By Bloomberg March 16, 2010
Mar 17, 2010 - 10:17:59 AM

The "quiet corruption" of absenteeism and negligent management might be as big a threat to Africa's development as the graft scandals that frequently dominated newspaper headlines, the World Bank said yesterday.

Health care, education and other services were suffering because of malpractices that did not involve the exchange of money, negating gains from increased aid to the continent, the Washington-based lender said in a report on its website.

"Quiet corruption does not make the headlines the way bribery scandals do, but it is just as corrosive to societies," Shanta Devarajan, the bank's chief economist for Africa, said in a statement.

It was "particularly harmful for the poor, who are more vulnerable and more reliant on government services".

The findings form part of the World Bank's 2010 Africa Development Indicators report released yesterday.

"Not only is quiet corruption pervasive and widespread in Africa, but it hurts the poor disproportionately," Obiageli Ezekwesili, the World Bank's vice-president for Africa, said in the report. "Worse still, it can have long-term consequences," she added.

Riots have broken out in several townships around South Africa in recent weeks as residents protested against poor services, such as health care, and job losses.

Police fired rubber bullets at more than 300 protesters in Meyerton in the Free State on March 3, after officials impounded their furniture because they had failed to pay fees for services such as road maintenance, water and other municipal rates.

There had been 104 major protests over the delivery of services in South Africa last year, up from 27 the previous year, Municipal IQ, a research firm that collates data on local government, said in a report on March 3.

South Africa's efforts to ramp up public spending on education had not translated to higher student test scores, in part because the money was being stolen by corrupt officials and partly because of high levels of teacher absences, Devarajan said from London in a video conference with reporters yesterday. -