Greener pastures create passport to corruption

Zimbabweans trying to leave the country in search of economic opportunities are having to deal with government officials whom they allege are turning their plight into profit, IRIN has learnt. Rising incidents of graft by public officials has coincided with Zimbabwe's worsening economic conditions, according to the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI). It ranked Zimbabwe as among the world's most corrupt countries in a report released in October. The organisation claimed corruption was rampant in both the private and public sectors, but said the perception among ordinary Zimbabweans was mostly that public office was being used for personal enrichment. The authorities dismissed TI's findings, accusing the group of partisanship. Zimbabwe's economic problems took a sharp turn for the worst when pro-government militants, led by veterans of the country's liberation war, began illegally invading white-owned farms in 2000. Investors and donors turned away from the country in protest at the lawlessness, resulting in the current acute shortages of foreign currency and fuel, and the skyrocketing prices of basic commodities. Almost 70 percent of the labour force is unemployed, and the inflation rate, now officially at 526 percent, is expected to reach 700 percent by the end of March 2004. Exactly how many Zimbabweans have emigrated over the past three years remains unclear, but the queues remain long outside the passport office in the capital, Harare. It is not uncommon for people to spend the night outside on the pavement, to ensure at least getting into the building the following day. The delays that characterise the application process have been complicated by corruption. Twenty-seven year old Anne Kamba told IRIN she had come to the passport offices for the past five days, but was finding it difficult to obtain an application form. "Senior authorities here tell us that application forms are there in abundance, but, surprisingly, when we ask for them from the relevant offices, we are told that they have run out," she explained. "What I have since discovered is that some officials are deliberately withholding the forms as a way of forcing us to buy them from them or their middlemen. They have formed syndicates with young men who loiter at the [entrance] gate and approach us, saying they have the forms. But where do these people think we will get the money from in these times of hardships?" According to Kamba the "middlemen" asked for Zim $200,000 (about US $250 at the official exchange rate of Zim $824 to the US dollar) for a passport application form, which they shared with passport control officials. "In some cases, passport seekers do not even have to visit these offices. Everything - from the application to the collection of passports - is done for them while they are at home. These are the people who are prepared to pay large sums of money, which sometimes runs into millions of [Zimbabwean] dollars," she added. Kamba, a qualified primary school teacher with three years' experience, hopes to join her sister in the United Kingdom. She told IRIN that low wages and poor working conditions had made her decide to seek employment abroad. Zimbabwe is experiencing a debilitating flight of professional and skilled people escaping the country's economic meltdown, with the health and teaching professions most affected by the brain drain. Those unable to leave have turned to "moonlighting" as a way of supplementing their meagre incomes, while others have seen opportunity in the crisis and are turning it to their own advantage. Constable Stan Mapiye (not his real name), a security guard at the central passport office, is among a handful of individuals who have benefited - he manages to net almost Zim $80,000 (US $100) daily. "I am glad this country is going through an economic crisis, because to me it is a blessing in disguise," he told IRIN. "I am able to make so much money because there are thousands of desperate people who come here every day to look for passports in order to seek greener pastures abroad." Mapiye, a junior police constable, earns an official gross monthly salary of Zim $140,000 (US $175). For around Zim $10,000 (US $12), Mapiya is willing to move a person to the front of the long queue of passport seekers. "These days, it's your money that talks. There is no need for you to sleep in a queue in order to get your passport," he said. A senior passport officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was difficult to monitor the activities of subordinates because of pressures of work. "Even though we condemn corruption in the strongest terms, there is no guarantee that employing people to monitor the situation at the gate and in the corridors will help, as these people might end up collaborating with the rotten eggs in our midst," she said. John Makumbe, Transparency International's local representative, attributes escalating corruption to a "breakdown of the justice delivery system". He said because of poor remuneration, the police, magistrates and judges were resorting to bribes in order to make ends meet. "The whole justice system, right from the Supreme Court to the lowest courts, is in shambles. There are no monitoring and retributive mechanisms to ensure that those who would have been found on the wrong side of the law are punished. The situation is made even more pathetic by the fact that those who should enforce and interpret the law are also corrupt," Makumbe alleged. He called on the government to create an independent anti-corruption commission to tackle graft in both the public and private sectors.