No more ‘Goldengates,’ please!

Corruption has reached alarming proportions in our country as reports of massive white collar crime continue to taint the airwaves and print media.
Fraud is being committed on gargantuan scale with the most recent audacity – the ‘Goldengate’ scandal at NBE, costing taxpayers nearly 200 mln birr.
There are many aspects in the current outbreak of corruption that indicate it is no longer a mainly individualized act but is rather becoming more organized in preparation and commission.
One of the many welcome surprises noted by foreign visitors to Ethiopia is that it only requires the minimum of precaution to walk around, even alone and at any godly hour virtually anywhere in Addis and all of Ethiopia in general.
Addis Ababa is quite possibly the safest large capital city in Africa. Levels of aggravated assault, armed robbery and other grievous crimes are exceedingly low.
However, if the foreign visitor would stay long enough to really get to know Ethiopia, they, like we the citizens, would come to realize that the real crime occurs in high places.
Ethiopia is among the last countries that can afford such unnecessary loss of national assets. Essentially, corruption can be described as a blight on development that also perversely benefits the corrupt the more progress the nation registers. This is a cannibalistic scourge that feeds on itself yet impoverishes all of society. Corruption is a self sustaining monster with sharp claws and long tentacles although it is devious in the ways it disguises itself. We must understand that if we are ever to escape the clutches of poverty, we should search for a remedy and that cannot be soon enough.
Among the very first measures should be to identify the conditions under which corruption is fostered and nurtured. This requires a systemic examination of the current ways and methods of doing official business, as very often, loopholes that allow for corruption are embedded in the fine print of contractual agreements even unwittingly.
Adopting best practice from squeaky clean nations such as the Nordic countries would go a long way in eliminating avenues that lead public office holders astray with the temptation of big money. There are also some emerging economies from which lessons could be drawn.
The civil service on the other hand requires sustained accountability and awareness training as this vital component of society is in the limelight of corruption allegations. Civil service employees, especially high office holders, should also be made to transparently declare personal assets before being entrusted with millions in public funds.
There must also be a realization that corruption does not take place in a vacuum. Large sums of money cannot disappear off the face of the earth without a trace. It is not easy to swindle one’s nation out of tens and hundreds of millions of birr without the aid of foreign business firms and financial institutions.
As corruption is a multi-faceted problem, controlling and eventually ridding the nation of this malignancy will require the dedicated effort of all sectors of society. It is a mammoth task and one that if eradicated, will be seen as the greatest legacy this generation can bequeath to posterity.