Policy corruption has seeped into government - the stealing will go on

Any dispassionate observer of policy in Kenya would be saddened, but not surprised, by the recent systematic denials by the government to claims that its officials routinely steal public money.

The latest line of defence is that if corruption were indeed as serious as the media say, where, then, were these funds before that have become recently available for stealing?

In other words, let Kenyan taxpayers understand that corruption is an equal opportunity offense that has been committed by past administrations and leaders of the opposition coalition. It is a characteristic of our public life that we shouldn’t pretend to be surprised about.

Pity the Kenyan taxpayer. Things have got to the point where we cannot blame foreigners for our vices. Now we distribute blame equally between national and county governments or minority and majority coalitions, and then “accept and move on” with the fact that corruption defines our country.

DEADLINE EXTENDED TWICE

To my mind, corruption in the public sector becomes this ubiquitous not only because of weak systems and evil people, but also because the policy process is itself ridden with corruption and unbelievable contradictions.

I will illustrate my concern for policy corruption through two instances: the quest for implementation of the two-thirds gender rule and the Access to Government Procurement Opportunity (AGPO) scheme.

By now, according to the Constitution, representative and other offices of the State should have complied fully with the two-thirds gender rule.

Parliament was instructed to ensure adherence to this rule and develop a mechanism to implement it. I will not belabour the history but the deadline has been extended twice, with the last one having lapsed two months ago.

Many politicians assert that adhering to this rule is politically complex and financially expensive. Neither claim is correct, but somehow Parliament reached consensus by default, leading to the lapse of the deadline with the matter still unresolved.

A study by the Institute of Economic Affairs and the National Women’s Steering Committee showed that the simplest way to resolve the impasse was by proportional nomination according to party strength, which would have added less than 10 per cent to Parliament’s annual spending.

The study also found that according to the best historical precedents, the best way to achieve gender parity in political representation is by direct nominations until a cadre of women, or the minority gender, are able to gain seats through political competition.

STASHING OF SAVINGS

Yet the leadership of both the Executive and the Legislature espoused the unexamined notion that Kenyans are universally opposed to enhancing female representation in Parliament because the cost would be unbearable.

Our conclusion at IEA-Kenya is that the use of falsehood in crafting policy is as serious a form of corruption as the blatant stealing and transporting of cash before dawn.

The Executive and Legislature adopted a false but convenient argument to forestall a straightforward requirement to implement the two-thirds gender rule. As a result, both arms of government lack credibility with Kenya’s women and dispassionate policy actors.

With such policy corruption at the core, who is surprised that the corrupt purchase of classy vehicles, homes and the stashing of savings in foreign accounts is routine?

The second example of policy corruption is the celebrated scheme known as AGPO.

Its purpose, ostensibly, is to set aside about 30 per cent of all government purchases to youth, women and people with disabilities.

The scheme is very popular because it opens up billions of shillings for these groups of disadvantaged Kenyans but it also bears the classic mark of policy corruption.

SPREADING THE PORK

The contradiction inherent in this scheme is that the same Legislature and Executive that deferred compliance with the constitutional two-thirds edict is suddenly generous with public money in a way that the Constitution had neither contemplated nor commanded.

Developing the political leadership of Kenya’s minority gender was beyond Parliament and the Executive, but spreading the pork through dubious procurement schemes was possible.

Once the auditors went through the accounts of the Ministry of Health, the leading beneficiaries of this scheme appeared to be neither youthful nor disadvantaged at all — just another well-dressed scam.

Clearly, no new businesses will be created from this scheme, however well-intended it is. It’s a convenient mechanism to expand fortunes for existing firms while hiding behind the name of youth, women and people with disabilities.

AGPO is a bellwether of procurement corruption and ought to be abolished as the bad experiment that it is. Corruption is now embedded into policy processes.

Kwame Owino is the chief executive officer of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA-Kenya), a public policy think tank based in Nairobi. Twitter: @IEAKwame