Anti-corruption mechanisms in Egypt leave a lot to be desired, as Al-Ahram Weekly finds out Ever get frustrated by having to grease a few palms to ensure an errand runs smoothly? Millions of Egyptians feel the same way. This has been reflected by Egypt's position on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) developed by Transparency International. This year Egypt ranked 74th out of 163 countries on the annual index, with a score of 3.3. Other Arab countries performed much better, with United Arab Emirates scoring 6.2, followed by Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Tunisia with scores of 5.3, 6, 5.7 and 4.6 respectively. For reference, the highest ranking country on the CPI was Finland with a score of 9.6. The CPI is a composite survey, reflecting the perceptions of business people and country analysts, both resident and non-resident. It draws on 16 different polls from 10 independent institutions. Egypt's ranking came as no surprise to Ahmed Ghoneim, assistant professor of economics at Cairo University. He told Al-Ahram Weekly that Egypt had always ranked low on the CPI, coming in the 78th place in 2004. He further pointed out that Egypt's situation is improving, as reflected by its rise to 72nd position in 2005. In that year they gained a score of 3.4 due to a boost in confidence in 2005, spurred on by the reform measures taken by the government to enhance the business climate and fight corruption in public authorities. However, this year it lost ground again, the loss being attributed to the delay in the delivery of some planned reforms. He remarked that high among the reforms that have been late in coming through is the new civil service law which aims at ensuring transparency, upgrading the living standards of civil servants, and overcoming the loopholes in the previous legislation that could lead to corruption. The lack of access to public information is problem area the government wanted to overcome through the issuance of a Freedom of Information Act. Ghoneim said that this will be presented to parliament for discussion during its current session. He further commented that an essential element of any proposed legislation should be concerned with how the law deals with parliamentarians or high ranking civil servants. "There is no law that deals with ministers releasing sensitive information when they are in power or after they leave. And there is no clear guide on which type of information may be considered sensitive and which type may be released to the public," said Ghoneim. He was also concerned that there is no law to clarify the relationship between public officials and their former businesses. "There is an institutional vacuum where the ministers themselves are not able to define how they have nothing to do with their [former] businesses after they have been appointed as ministers." Vito Tanzi, a former director in the fiscal affairs department of the International Monetary Fund also had some tips to offer to Egypt. Speaking during a recent seminar organised by the Egyptian Centre for Economic Studies, Tanzi stressed that corruption could only be combated by a combination of efforts. Foremost among those is the simplification of rules and regulations to avoid the need for excessive interpretation by those implementing the laws. For example, he said, tax laws are often fertile ground for corruption. The more complicated the tax laws, the more possibility for corruption. And more interaction between tax payers and tax inspector leads to more ambiguity as to the nature of the law. That is why, he explained, in the US tax reports are filed by mail. He also stressed the importance of the creation of an anti-corruption commission, which has the ability to apply punishment independently of the government. Tanzi pointed out that tackling corruption is important as corruption affects transactions which are important for a vibrant economy. He added that those that suffer most from corruption are the small enterprises. "Corruption is making it difficult for them to survive without paying bribes," he told participants at the workshop entitled "Corruption: causes, consequences and cures". A success story in eradicating corruption is Singapore. The country ranked among the top five on the CPI with a score of 9.4. According to Tanzi, Singapore has moved high on the CPI by paring down regulations to a minimum and writing them in clear, unambiguous language, leaving no place for discretion. Singapore's government also believed that people in key positions must have very high salaries in order to reduce the temptation of receiving bribes. Singapore has also created an independent Corruption Commission. The latter is one institution that Ghoneim believes is urgently required in Egypt. And alongside the commission, he believes that civil society has a role to play in restoring a sense of ethics and ethical behaviour. "The fact that petty corruption has become a normal attitude in many parts of the public service cannot be combated by the government alone," he observed. Furthermore, he called for swifter movement towards the development of legislation implementing the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) to which Egypt is signatory. The UNCAC, which entered into force in December 2005, calls for preventive measures and the criminalisation of the most prevalent forms of corruption in both the public and private sectors. It is the most recent and most comprehensive anti-corruption convention to be adopted and the only one with global reach. Other signatories to the UNCAC in MENA include Algeria, Jordan, Libya, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Jordan is scheduled to host the Conference of States that are Parties to the UNCAC on 10-14 December 2006. This event is intended to encourage increased international anti-corruption efforts and decide on methodology as to how progress in this issue is monitored.
