Corruption increasing poverty, NGOs say

Although corruption has always been a feature of Congolese life, the lack of political will by the country's leaders to fight the phenomenon is now causing a rise in levels of poverty, according to local NGOs. "It is obvious that the majority of Congolese are hostages of the corrupt minority," said Cephas Ewangui, president of the Congolese Federation of Human Rights and of the Thomas Sankara Pan-African Association. This perception is illustrated by a 2003 World Bank questionnaire survey into poverty in the Republic of Congo. Of the 6,114 persons questioned, 5,981 said corruption and fraud constituted a major social ill in the country. Top of the list of the most corrupt government departments is the customs; followed in order by the police, the courts, teachers and town councils, according to the survey. It said that there was also corruption in giving public contracts. The survey showed that the public was more concerned about corruption than by low salaries and unemployment, and that the effects of corruption were manifested in various ways. "Indisputably some police officers are corrupt," Theodore Longo, a lieutenant with the police highways patrol, said. "They take money from taxi and truck drivers who have committed offences." In addition, 45 percent of the respondents said the government was doing nothing to fight corruption. However, in December 2003 the country held its first national day to fight corruption and fraud, when a national plan to this effect was adopted. The occasion was organised by the ministry in the presidency in charge of state affairs, with support from the UN Development Programme. The plan aims to restore the state, the civil service, moral and ethical behaviour among public officers, and to revamp control mechanisms at all levels of society. The plan also calls for the creation of a national follow-up commission on the plan. "To this day nothing has been done," Roger Boukja-Owoko, the executive director of the Congolese Observatory for Human Rights, told IRIN. "It's all a question of will, otherwise criminals will take refuge in impunity and the public will continue to suffer." "We must fight corruption because of its economic and social cost to the county," Simon Mfoutou, the minister for state affairs, said.