“Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation” (ETC)
In August 1998, the World Bank (WB) issued a corruption report on
Ethiopia and summarized:
In the Government’s view, the following are the
major determinants of corruption: a poorly functioning legal and judicial system
inconsistent with the 1994 Constitution; an overregulated bureaucracy,
emphasising regulation rather than service delivery; a low-paid civil service; a
new yet rudimentary government, based on a federal structure; and weak budgetary
and financial control, with an outdated procurement structure, and poorly
trained financial staff…
That WB report made a number of recommendations to combat corruption
including, “strengthening links with civil society and the private sector to
identify critical areas relating to corruption”, “elimination of excessive
regulation”, “promotion of competitive market conditions and greater
transparency”, and facilitation of “dialogue among Parliament, Civil Service,
Civil Society, the Private Sector, the Media, the government, the Chamber of
Commerce, other members of the business community, and civil society on
implementing the anti-corruption program and developing complementary
activities.”
By 2013, the “overregulated bureaucracy” of 1998 had become even more
over-regulated. Government service delivery remains abysmally poor. The “new
rudimentary government” had grown tentacles that crushed and pulverized
everything in its reach. The “procurement structure” across agencies had been
transformed into a bottomless vortex of corruption, fraud, waste and abuse of
public funds, including foreign aid and international loans. The “poorly
functioning legal and judicial system” evolved to become an exquisite kangaroo
court system which permits arrest and incarceration of suspects without
sufficient evidence. (Ethiopia is the only country in the world where the
prosecution can arrest and jail suspects indefinitely while repeatedly asking
leave of court to gather evidence of guilt on the suspects!) The “poorly trained
staff” evolved into a sophisticated band of official thieves and swindlers. The
regime that cemented itself in power in Ethiopia since 1998 is so corrupt that
its venality is arguably exceeded only by the regime of General Sani Abacha of
Nigeria in the mid-1990s who, alongside his family members, associates, cronies
and supporters, looted Nigeria’s coffers to the tune of over USD$16 billion.
The two most effective anti-corruption institutions recommended in the 1998
WB report — the independent media and civil society organizations — have been
totally decimated.
In its January 2013 report, Human Rights Watch concluded, “The
ruling party has passed a host of laws attacking the media and civil society,
including the Charities and Societies Proclamation that has made independent
human rights work in the country almost impossible. The state has frozen the
assets of the last two remaining groups – the leading women’s rights
organization, the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association EWLA) – which has provided
free legal aid to over 17,000 women – and the Human Rights Council (HRCO).”
Ethiopia’s independent media has been annihilated with dozens of journalists in
jail or in exile.
According to Freedom House, “Ethiopia [in 2012] is currently
the second-leading jailer of journalists in Africa, after Eritrea.”
Since the WB’s 1998 study, the cancer of corruption has metastasized
throughout the Ethiopian body politic like cancer. In 2011,
Global Financial Integrity (GFI), the renowned organization that
reports on “illicit financial flows” (illegal capital flight, mispricing,
bulk cash movements, hawala transactions, smuggling, etc.) out of developing
countries, reported: “Ethiopia lost $11.7 billion to outflows of ill-gotten
gains between 2000 and 2009…
The people of Ethiopia are being bled
dry.
No matter how hard they try to fight their way out of
absolute destitution and poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the
current of illicit capital leakage.” The economy heaves under excessive
regulation and taxation. The regime has a stranglehold on power and its
supporters and cronies have sucked the economy dry. The regime operates in total
secrecy and with no transparency and accountability for its official
activities.
In June 2012, the
World Bank issued its comprehensive 448-page “Diagnosing Corruption
in Ethiopia”. It was a study of extraordinary depth and scale. It was a
“clinical” diagnosis of cancerous corruption that has has metastasized
throughout the country’s “health, education, rural water supply, construction,
telecommunications, justice and land sectors”.
For crying out loud…
Over the past several months, I have commented on the 2012 WB’s corruption
findings in the
land and
education sectors in Ethiopia. Here I comment on corruption in
the telecommunications sector.
According to the WB, corruption in the Ethiopian telecommunication
sector
specifically “includes bribery, extortion, fraud, deception,
collusion, cartels, abuse of power, embezzlement, trading in influence, money
laundering, and similar unlawful actions.” Billions of dollars have been lost in
the telecommunications sector from outright theft, fraud, waste, abuse,
profiteering, nepotism, kickbacks, sweetheart deals, shady dealings,
malfeasance, mismanagement and mindboggling incompetence. There is little
accountability and transparency in the “Ethiopian Telecommunications
Corporation”; and it has become the home and playground of the most avaricious
corruptoids in Ethiopia.
The 2012 WB report attributes corruption in the ETC to a number of factors
including an “environment where there is a combination of exceptionally high
investment costs and poor service delivery”, “lack of accountability for the
sole service provider”, “anticompetitive practices in the market” and “serious
mismanagement within the telecommunications sector.”
In its assessment of corruption in the telecommunications sector, the WB
begins its analysis with the following ironic observation:
Ethiopia boasts the oldest functioning
telephone system in Africa. In 1894, just 17 years after the invention of
the telephone, work began on the provision of telephone and telegram
communication between Addis Ababa and Harar, a distance of some 477 kilometers.
[The regime]… invested some US$14 billion in infrastructure development
between 1996 and 2006” [amounting to] about 10 percent of GDP in the
sector, an unusually high level of investment by international standards…. [The
investments] are currently directed into fixed, wireless and mobile network
infrastructure, including third-generation (3G) mobile technology as well as a
national fiber-optic backbone…”
Despite the country’s exceptionally heavy
recent investment in its telecoms infrastructure, it has the second lowest
telephone penetration rate in Africa. It once led the regional field in the
laying of fiber-optic cable, yet suffers from severe bandwidth and reliability
problems. And it boasted the first privately owned public telecoms service
in Africa, yet is now the only nation on the continent still permitting a
state-owned company to maintain a monopoly on all telecoms services. Amid
its low service delivery, an apparent lack of accountability, and multiple court
cases, some aspects of the sector are perceived by both domestic and
international observers to be deeply affected by corruption.
Ethiopia established its telecommunications infrastructure the same year
Europe laid its plan for the “Scramble for Africa”. In 1894, the Berlin
Conference was held to enable European nations to chop up Africa and colonize it
without the need for imperialistic wars among themselves. By 1904, telegraph
lines ran into the capital Addis Ababa from Harar in the east, Tigray in the
north and Jimma in the south.
According to Freedom House, in 2011, mobile, internet, and
fixed line telecommunications in Ethiopia is the second lowest in all of
Africa.
According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU),
“in 2011, there were only 829,000 fixed telephone lines in actual operation (a
decrease from 908,000 lines in 2010), serving a population of 83 million for a
penetration rate of less than 1 percent.” Internet penetration in Ethiopia, the
second most populous country in Africa with a population approaching 90 million
in 2013, is less than 1 percent (0.7%), keeping that country at the tail end
of all African countries; and for that matter all countries in the world. The
bar graph displayed below (obtained from the WB report) shows that in 2009,
Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Djbouti and Eritrea were ahead of Ethiopia in the
percentage of internet users, and for all practical purposes in mobile and fixed
line telecommunication services as well.
For crying out loud, how is possible for a country that has had
telecommunications services for 119 years and “boasted having the oldest
functioning telephone system in Africa” to have the lowest telecommunications
penetration rate in Africa today?
In the name of the Almighty, how is that possible for a country that has
invested “US$14 billion in infrastructure development between 1996 and 2006” and
made “exceptionally heavy recent investment in its telecoms infrastructure” to
have the lowest telecommunications penetration rate in Africa?
