Thursday, August 18, 2005
Corruption.
It is endemic here, but you don’t really see it. It is like the HIV/AIDS that nobody dies from, but the numbers all show how devastating it is in the country. But you see the shadow of corruption everywhere.
The Rotarians say that corruption increases the cost of doing business by about 20%. They all try to duck out of political dinners, celebrations and meetings because they know that if they go, they will be shaken down for contributions.
While we were at the Red Monkey, Paola and I had a discussion about business and development in a country like Tanzania, and how corruption fit into the picture. It turned out that the RM is owned by a Tanzanian instead of the foreign ownership that is so common in all the really good resorts. It was started about five years ago. Using my course in entrepreneurship as the lead-in, I asked the owner how he had put the capital together to start his business. First he pointed out that this was his village, he was born here 50 years ago. Then he gave a chuckle and said “and I was a policeman.”
The Imani Lodge, where Diane, Ellen, and I stayed because we couldn’t all fit into the Maruhubi on short notice, was about a 10 minute taxi ride from the rest of the gang at the Maruhubi. We dawdled late into the morning, enjoying the luxury, peace and quiet after the continual push and scheduling of the previous weeks. So there was only one other couple, Tanzanian, at breakfast with us, and we ended up riding in the same taxi with them. How does it happen that a Tanzanian couple has the money for such an expensive pleasure as the Imani? The woman explained that her husband had needed a vacation because he had been working so hard as the District Commissioner at Mtwara.
Paul refuses to do any construction work for Nsumba because it is so difficult to get his money after the work is completed, if he manages to get it at all. He says that after a contract is negotiated by the school and approved by the government, the Headmaster then comes back and insists that the work be done for less money than was agreed in the contract.
Peter, accountant and logistics officer for a gold mining company, says that there are always overruns on construction and maintenance contracts for vague or unsupportable reasons.
I’ve heard that one reason that every organization here seems to need new SUVs with their decal on the door as the first order of business is that the Director who chooses the dealer is often receives a Special Sales Commission for the purchase.
It would seem that foreign aid for Tanzanian infrastructure should be given to the country instead of controlled by the donor, so that Tanzanians can develop the necessary technology and skills. But how can you do that if most of the money will just piss away?
The roads that are being built all over Mwanza are a donation from the European Union, but the signs tell me that not only is the Contractor an Italian firm, but the Supervising Engineer and the Inspector are two other (different) Italian firms. The roads are solid and good; the streets built by the City are thin skins of asphalt over dirt, and fall apart within a year.
There is this great story about the road to the airport. When the British left, there was a solid all-weather road. A bit narrow, but it took only ten minutes to drive to the airport. After independence the road got no maintenance and, predicatably, fell apart. It became so bad that they received foreign donor money to rip up the rest of it, expecting that a dirt road would be better. So, by five years ago, it took over an hour for this “ten minute” drive. This lack of adequate infrastructure was justification for a major foreign donation, and the beautiful road that was completed just before I arrived again allows access to the airport in only ten minutes.
It is endemic here, but you don’t really see it. It is like the HIV/AIDS that nobody dies from, but the numbers all show how devastating it is in the country. But you see the shadow of corruption everywhere.
The Rotarians say that corruption increases the cost of doing business by about 20%. They all try to duck out of political dinners, celebrations and meetings because they know that if they go, they will be shaken down for contributions.
While we were at the Red Monkey, Paola and I had a discussion about business and development in a country like Tanzania, and how corruption fit into the picture. It turned out that the RM is owned by a Tanzanian instead of the foreign ownership that is so common in all the really good resorts. It was started about five years ago. Using my course in entrepreneurship as the lead-in, I asked the owner how he had put the capital together to start his business. First he pointed out that this was his village, he was born here 50 years ago. Then he gave a chuckle and said “and I was a policeman.”
The Imani Lodge, where Diane, Ellen, and I stayed because we couldn’t all fit into the Maruhubi on short notice, was about a 10 minute taxi ride from the rest of the gang at the Maruhubi. We dawdled late into the morning, enjoying the luxury, peace and quiet after the continual push and scheduling of the previous weeks. So there was only one other couple, Tanzanian, at breakfast with us, and we ended up riding in the same taxi with them. How does it happen that a Tanzanian couple has the money for such an expensive pleasure as the Imani? The woman explained that her husband had needed a vacation because he had been working so hard as the District Commissioner at Mtwara.
Paul refuses to do any construction work for Nsumba because it is so difficult to get his money after the work is completed, if he manages to get it at all. He says that after a contract is negotiated by the school and approved by the government, the Headmaster then comes back and insists that the work be done for less money than was agreed in the contract.
Peter, accountant and logistics officer for a gold mining company, says that there are always overruns on construction and maintenance contracts for vague or unsupportable reasons.
I’ve heard that one reason that every organization here seems to need new SUVs with their decal on the door as the first order of business is that the Director who chooses the dealer is often receives a Special Sales Commission for the purchase.
It would seem that foreign aid for Tanzanian infrastructure should be given to the country instead of controlled by the donor, so that Tanzanians can develop the necessary technology and skills. But how can you do that if most of the money will just piss away?
The roads that are being built all over Mwanza are a donation from the European Union, but the signs tell me that not only is the Contractor an Italian firm, but the Supervising Engineer and the Inspector are two other (different) Italian firms. The roads are solid and good; the streets built by the City are thin skins of asphalt over dirt, and fall apart within a year.
There is this great story about the road to the airport. When the British left, there was a solid all-weather road. A bit narrow, but it took only ten minutes to drive to the airport. After independence the road got no maintenance and, predicatably, fell apart. It became so bad that they received foreign donor money to rip up the rest of it, expecting that a dirt road would be better. So, by five years ago, it took over an hour for this “ten minute” drive. This lack of adequate infrastructure was justification for a major foreign donation, and the beautiful road that was completed just before I arrived again allows access to the airport in only ten minutes.
