Abstract

Corruption is a phenomenon with serious consequences that affects all communities in the world. In Cameroon, its effects are widespread in the Public and Private sectors. Cameroon has twice been classified as the most corrupt state in the world-1998 and 1999 as per Transparency International indices.

The government has put several structures in place to fight this ill, but the population is still too clearly understand their roles. This research was therefore carried out to determine the impact of corruption in the Cameroon public administration. The main theory used for this study is the Collective action and Principal-agent theory.  The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of corruption in Cameroon public administration.

Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to the public in Buea. Interviews were conducted with some workers of the major anticorruption agencies. Respondents agreed that corruption was a major problem and that its existence was due to lack of transparency, Poor working condition, Economic rent, Discretion and Impunity measures

The notorious sectors were the police, gendarmerie, education, customs, treasury, taxation and judiciary. They identified the National Anti-Corruption Commission, Special Criminal Court and Supreme State Audit Office as popular anti-corruption agencies. The public is aware of the ills of corruption and they also understand government’s efforts towards its eradication. The roles of these anti-corruption institutions were however, not known by most of the respondents.

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Corruption originates from the Latin word-corruptus, which is the past participle of corrumpere, which means bribe, mar or destroy. Corruption is as old as human history; the first dynasty (3100-2700 bc) of ancient Egypt noted corruption in its judiciary, ancient china where the Chinese mythology smear cake of sugar and honey onto the picture of the kitchen god they kept in their homes before burning the image, Greek historian Herodous notes the Alcmaeonid family bribed the Oracle of Delphi priestesses.

From the sited evidence, it suggests that it has been around the world from time immemorial, and, in recent times, it has occupied a front seat in global discussions. In spite of its presence everywhere, there exists no universally accepted definition of corruption, and this constitutes one of the principal difficulties in studying the phenomenon.

According to world Bank,( 2012), corruption is mostly described as the abuse of public power for private gain moralists describe corruption as ’’an immoral and unethical phenomenon that contains a set of moral aberrations from moral standards of society, causing loss of respect for and confidence in duly constituted authority’’.

Despite the differences in the definition of corruption from the public-centered to the market-centered perspectives, and from the revisionist to moralist perceptions, there is however unanimity in the condemnation of corruption which is a global predicament that hinders economic growth, threatens the integrity of markets, undermines fair competition, distorts resource allocation, destroys public trust, and cripples the rule of law (Crouch, et al, 2012). In the 20th century, the World Bank estimated international bribery exceeds $1.5 trillion annually, which is 2% of Global

The advent of the 21st century brought about changes in the fight against corruption which was until then, predominantly handled by local courts. Several institutions were created to combat this crime in Cameroon. The very first of these was the National Anti-Corruption Observatory created in 2000 following pressure mounted on the Cameroonian government by the US State Department, the Britton Woods Institutions and Transparency International.

Lack of financial and structural autonomy marred the functioning of this institution, thereby leading to its replacement with the National Anti” Corruption Commission (NACC, known by its French acronym CONAC) in 2006. Since its creation, CONAC has led the fight against conniption mainly via investigation of corrupt officials and transmission of the reports to the Presidency to visa the prosecution of the criminals (Forsberg, 2013).

Corruption is a ‘virus’ that poses a threat to global socioeconomic and political advancement. Thus a universal antidote would be most suitable to counteract its propagation. In this light, numerous international symposiums and conventions have focused on the eradication of corruption across the world through the creation of institutions and the utilization of diverse instilments ranging from the enactment of domestic and international laws, to the endorsement of global cooperation in tracking and sanctioning perpetrators of corrupt practices (Forsberg, 2013).

American States Inter-American Convention Against Corruption; the 1997 Convention on the Fight against Corruption involving Officials of the European Communities or Officials of Member States of the European Union (This Convention was adopted by the Council of the European Union); the 1997 Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions; the 2003 African Union convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption; the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC); Leader’s declarations at G20 summits and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which has as mission, to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system (Pittsburgh et al,  2009 and St. Petersburg 2013).

Corruption is a canker worm that has invaded the Cameroonian society. It cuts across all sectors in Cameroon, be it the Public or Private sector and, not even the church is free of corruption. It is an age-old phenomenon that has plagued the Cameroonian society notably in the Health, Educational and Judicial. Financial, military and Law and Order departments.

Cameroon has twice topped the chart of the most corrupt states in the world-1998 and 1999 as per Transparency International indices. Corruption is manifested in several forms including; bribery, nepotism, graft, fraud, speed money, theft, pilferage, embezzlement, falsification of records and influence peddling GERDDES-Cameroon.

The office of Supreme State Audit is also a leading body in the fight against corruption in Cameroon today. In 2011, a Special Criminal Court was created to prosecute state officials who misappropriated funds valued equal to or above fifty million francs CFA. Since then, several top state officials including a former Prime Minister, Minister of State in charge of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Minister of Finance and numerous General Managers of public enterprises and parastatals have been convicted by this court for fund.

These are clear indicators that the advent of the 21st century brought about a drastic change in the government’s fight against corruption in Cameroon. The “Operation Sparrow Hawk’ was launched by the President of the Republic and placed under the coordination of the Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Justice, and Keeper of the Seals, to track down and expose public servants who misappropriate state funds.

These institutions were created to jointly and severally uproot corruption which hinders development as it accounts directly and indirectly for loss of revenue by the government. It is also important to highlight that the fight against corruption in Cameroon does not exist only in the public sector, but also in the private sector.

The results of a survey carried out in 2008 showed that 49% of the 1052 companies interrogated affirmed to have bribed taxation officers. Another 76% of those companies agreed that corruption had negatively affected their businesses (Nguemegne, et al, 2011)

1.2 Statement of Problem

Due to the high level of corruption in Cameroon local government, foreigners regard average Cameroonians especially those who wants to do business, with them as corrupt, because trust has been away with corruption.

We have created such a bad image for ourselves with potential foreign business partners to the extent that genuine and honest people now suffer. Virtually all sectors of the society are presently experiencing moral crisis as a result of corruption.

It is now a case of “everyone for himself, God for us all”. ill-gotten wealth is now glorified publicly. This has made corruption a norm and a victimless crime. However, the effect of corruption has been debilitating and pernicious on the nation’s body polity social values have continued to decline as the get rich syndrome has led to numerous cases of violence lowering of traditional institutions and breakdown in laws and order. The economy has continue to sink deeper into the doldrums as it come under the full weight of corruption.

The citizenry are worst for it, as poverty runs deeper in the lives of the common people, social state of despair and decay. (Odekunle; 2001) 11. is the position of this study that in order to come to grips with multidimensional nature of the problem of administrative corruption in Cameroon local government, all inclusive approach is desirable in order to enable us analyze administrative corruption.

Corruption as it affects local authorities in Cameroon, this social illness has its attendance effects on the people so much, this is because what the local people are supposed to have are being denied of them. No good roads, shoddy market stalls, dilapidated garages, no primary health care centre and so on, this and many more are what local Government Performance owed to the people but are not forth coming.

This calls for a great attention to alleviate people from suffering, to also seek to show legacy and accountability in local government discharge of duty.

1.3 Research Questions

To what extent has corruption influenced Cameroon’s public administration?
Is there any relationship between corruption and poverty alleviation in Cameroon?
What are the measures to combat corruption in Cameroon in order to promote economic development?

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