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Fighting Corruption when the World is Flat: from Namibia to China
By Kaufmann | July 21, 2009 1 Comment »
Namibia Governance Indicators (top bar in each pair) vs. China
Namibia is one of the countries in Africa that has been serious about governance. We see this in the latest Governance Indicators. Such commitment to good governance includes anti-corruption efforts.
Yet often it is hard to figure out where fighting corruption may lead to, in today’s globalized world. A large bribery case is being investigated in Namibia, stemming from a new money-laundering law that requires their own banks to routinely report large money transfers to investigators. Evidently they did not foresee the ramifications.
As being reported by the New York Times now:…
“To the likely consternation of diplomats in both Beijing and faraway Windhoek, a newly minted initiative by Namibia’s government to root out official corruption has snared an early catch: three people who, Namibian prosecutors charge, helped win a lucrative contract for a Chinese company recently headed by the son of Hu Jintao, China’s president… There is no public evidence that President Hu’s 38-year-old son, Hu Haifeng, or other high officials of the company, Nuctech Company Limited, knew of the Namibian dealings. But mere reports of the charges have already prompted Chinese government censors to block Internet surfers from searching for news about the younger Mr. Hu, Namibia or Nuctech…”
Indeed, see here a report from AP on heightened Chinese internet censorship at present, partly resulting from this politically sensitive case.
Among emerging economies, China does relatively well on Government Effectiveness, as also seen in the same chart (comparing Namibia with China on all six dimensions of governance). Yet China’s governance deficit in Corruption, and also in ‘Voice’ (which includes media censorship), is glaring.
So an initiative in a small African country half the world away sheds light (and internet darkness) on China’s governance deficit.
Topics: Corruption, Measurement Frontiers, Public-Private Linkages, Voice and Human Rights | | 1 Comment
July 28th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
What about the combination of the Corruption Control Index and the Gov. Effectiveness Index (CC x GE). It seems the interaction of the two could be an important indicator of the overall governance quality. You can’t have one without the other.