Corruption in Yemen
Corruption in Yemen is a highly serious problem. Yemen ranked 176 out of 180 countries in the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index. It is the most corrupt country in the Arabian Peninsula.[1] It is also the poorest country in the Middle East, "with an exceptionally high birth rate, acute rates of child malnutrition and rapidly dwindling reserves of oil and water." In Yemen, according to Chatham House, "corruption, poverty and inequality are systemic";[2] in the words of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, corrupt activity is "so entrenched and pervasive" that many citizens feel powerless.[3]
Absent any "system of control and accountability," corruption is now present throughout the public and private spheres, so much so that in the words of the World Bank, "[c]orruption and patronage networks are running the country's public affairs." This ubiquitous corruption has resulted in weak government and "corrupt power blocs that control public resources." As a consequence of civil-service corruption, there are large numbers of so-called ghost workers. Corruption in the energy, communications, and health and education sectors have resulted in inadequate service or no service at all.[1]
Jane Marriott, Britain's Ambassador to Yemen, stated in December 2013 that corruption in Yemen was so pervasive that it was credibly undermining the security and economy of the nation. She also noted that institutionalized corruption of such a grand scale discourages development and innovation.[4]
Background
In the mid 1990s, corruption allegedly became "rampant" in Yemen.
In 2008, business people with close ties to Ahmed Saleh, the son of President Saleh, reportedly used World Bank funds to found Shibam Holding Company, a government-backed property developer. This new firm took control of a great deal of government land and, later, of the General Investment Authority (GIA).[2]
Beginning in 2004, another clan, the
Also in 2010, the CEIP stated in that Yemen was at greater systemic risk of collapsing from corruption, than by being toppled by Al-Qaeda.[3]
Young Yemenis' anger over "political and economic exclusion" led to a 2011 popular uprising and increased the risk of civil war. In response, the U.S.,
This resignation effectively averted civil war. Replacing Saleh as president was his deputy,
Over two years later, however, anti-corruption activists were still embattled with an entrenched culture of corruption that discourages honesty. A representative of a local
In a survey of Yemenis taken in 2013, 42% believed corruption was up since 2011. The World Bank agreed that by 2014 there had not been "any noticeable improvement in anti-corruption efforts" in Yemen, and that in fact corruption in the country was "still rampant and growing."
When Saleh's successor, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, was toppled in a coup in 2015, Saleh was accused of playing a role in it.[5]
Yemen is a chronically poor performer on Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index. Since the current calculation of the Index was introduced in 2012, Yemen has fallen from its highest score of 23 (on a scale from 0, "highly corrupt", to 100, "very clean") in 2012 to a low score of 14 in 2016 and 2018 and, as of 2023, a score of 16. When ranked by score in 2023, Yemen ranked 176th of the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector.[7] Comparing Yemen's 2023 score of 16 with worldwide scores, the best score in 2023 was 90 (ranked 1), and the worst score was 11 (ranked 180).[8] For comparison with regional scores, the average score among Middle Eastern and North African countries [Note 1] was 34. The highest score among Middle Eastern and North African countries was 68 and the lowest score was 13.[9]
Government
Nepotism
Under Saleh, power was alleged to be distributed to the president's relatives and members of his clan, who came to dominate the military, tribes, government, and economy.[2]
A 2013 report argued that Saleh utilized his massive patronage network to garner cooperation between the nation's economic, military, and tribal elites. This system operated to the benefit of the Yemeni elite at the expense of the poor majority. The report noted that the elite rarely keep their looted wealth within the nation, further bearing down on Yemen's populace.[10]
A
Today, despite the changes that have taken place, Yemen's economy is criticized as still being dominated by a tiny elite consisting of military, tribal, political, and business leaders, with around ten families and groups of business associates controlling over 80% of the country's imports, manufacturing, processing, banking, telecommunications, and goods transport. Yemen's future, stated a 2013 report by Chatham House, will be determined by "whether its elite remains more concerned by the threats posed by rival factions within the elite, or prioritizes its response to popular anger arising from the failure to allocate resources more widely."[2]
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) has pointed out that a custom known as wasta', or favoritism, ensures that favors or job appointments are routinely given to persons who have relatives in positions of power or who pay sufficient bribes to public officials.[3]
According to the World Food Programme, "over 10 million Yemenis – 46 per cent of the population – do not have enough to eat," a problem that is worsened by "the self-enriching behaviour of the country's elites, who are depleting Yemen's resources, sending illicitly earned and untaxed profits abroad, and often actively resisting much-needed structural reforms."[2] Nepotism, according to IRIN News, is routinely present in public aid projects, and its presence is more often a hindrance.[6]
Election fraud
Elections have been characterized by Freedom House as "vote buying, the partisanship of public officials and the military, and exploitation of state control over key media platforms."[11] According to Chatham House, a national debate about corruption was occasioned by the 2006 election campaign, but this debate did not lead to any systemic changes.[2] Also, "parliamentary elections have been repeatedly postponed," with the 2009 elections put off to 2011 and then put off again.[11]
Military
According to Chatham House, corruption is reportedly widespread in the
A "parastatal" entity called YECO, which procures military equipment and is run by active-duty officers, owns a great deal of land and "various parastatal enterprises," mostly in what used to be South Yemen, according to Chatham House. YECO is active in various sectors, including real estate, tourism, construction, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, transport and agriculture. The military is permitted to seize land for its own use, and can do so either directly or via YECO. It has been suggested that this land is often given to officers or sold to developers for private profit. Both Saleh and Ali Mohsin had "extensive patronage networks inside YECO."[2]
Bribery and petty corruption
Bribes have been characterized as not only widespread but "necessary" in Yemen, given the poor economic conditions that compel subject police and other civil servants to try to live on salaries that "barely meet subsistence levels." As Philippe Le Billon of the University of British Columbia has put it, petty corruption of this sort is often the only way civil servants can make ends meet.[6]
In Yemen, a person who is not entitled to a passport can easily secure one in exchange for a bribe. This causes trouble for Yemenis who have legitimate passports and who wish to work in other Gulf countries. These Yemenis' resultant inability to get jobs abroad limits remittances and thus weakens the Yemeni economy.[3]
Business
Land
The process by which land is sold and registered is reportedly murky and lacking in transparency, and these systematic weaknesses provide opportunities for widespread corruption.[2]
Oil
During the Saleh era, the
Fuel subsidies in Yemen, according to the
Medicine
At a typical hospital, according to IRIN News, doctors and other staff are, according to one employee, mostly hired on the basis of connections to the local sheikh, without regard to qualifications. Many of those who are hired are either "ghost workers" – i.e., do not exist – or do not actually show up for work. The latter receive their own paychecks, while the sheikh takes those for the "ghost workers." Medical funding rarely makes it past the employees dividing it between themselves.[6]
Another medical professional described a similar situation in a hospital in
Banking
Yemen's central bank has raised much of its capital from private banks "by selling treasury bills and bonds into the domestic market at generous interest rates." This resulted, allegedly, in excellent profits for elite businessmen who held most of the government's debt but deterred other businesspersons from applying for loans.[2]
Economic growth
A December 2014 World Bank report stated that corruption is a continued drain on the economy of Yemen. Corruption by influential individuals who strong-arm investors, forcing them to pay for protection, negatively affects Yemen's business climate, according to the report, causing investor flight that results in fewer job opportunities and hesitation on the part of Yemeni businessmen abroad to invest in their own country.[1]
A September 2010 report on Yemeni corruption by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) described corruption as the chief source of Yemen's stagnation. Fighting corruption, stated the report, must be central to stabilization and development. According to CEIP, corruption was preventing the expansion of small business owing to the arbitrary corruption they face at the hands of police and government officials. This, in turn, keeps unemployment high, and discourages investment.[3]
A 2010 documentary film by the Center for International Private Enterprise, Destructive Beast, exposed the cost of corruption, in terms of economic and social impact, in Yemen.[3]
Foreign aid
"Yemen's reputation for corruption," IRIN News has maintained, is a chief factor why Yemen received limited aid. IRIN stated that in 2006, a London group that had granted $4.7 billion in aid to Yemen saw only about 10 percent of that funding pass through corruption obstacles and contribute to aid.[6]
In 2011, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) found that current efforts to reduce corruption in the foreign aid to Yemen rely too much on internationally driven "technical-legal" processes that lack sufficient local consent. Also, current anti-corruption approaches tend to be legal framework, which has little impact on the localized groups that lack rule of law.[6]
Anti-corruption activities
According to the World Bank, the regulatory bodies monitoring corruption in Yemen are weak. The parliament, instead of acting against corruption, is said to have acted as an enabler of government opacity because it routinely defends the government.[1] However, some of the laws Yemen has proceeded with have been called a "good start."[4]
The Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC), however, has "not...fully realized" its officially designated role. Authorities have slowed down its investigative procedures or impeded the referral of cases to authorities that are supposed to take action on them. Also, the legal system lacks framework for special cases. Out of 2400 corruption complaints filed from 2007 to 2014, only 71 were heard in court. In 2013, 100 cases of corruption were referred to the SNACC for prosecution, but by the end of that year no verdicts had been forthcoming.[6]
In 2013, President Hadi dismissed several highly placed officials for corruption. Also, the Central Organization for Control and Auditing has prosecuted corrupt officials and recuperated embezzled funds.[6] Freedom House has credited the Yemeni government with trying to fight corruption, but has also pointed out that the country has no conflict of interest enforcement and that bodies responsible for auditing and investigation are not independent of the executive branch.[11]
Transparency International's 2005 Global Corruption Report noted donors in Yemen rarely denounce corruption for fear of politically-motivated reprisals.[6]
A campaign by Transparency International's Yemen chapter (YTTI), addressed corruption in the security sector, particularly bribery and extortion by police officers and soldiers. In 2012, police were alleged to have threatened YTTI members violently and may have even resorted to force. Also, the group's project coordinator was shot by an unidentified shooter after delivering a speech on corruption, seriously injuring him.[6]
The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) has backed Yemenis who demand greater government accountability and transparency. In 2013, the then British Minister of State for International Development, Alan Duncan MP, told journalists that Yemen requires better leadership in combatting corruption at every level.[4]
The US State Department has expressed concern about the lack of laws protecting Yemeni government employees who report corruption. According to the Department's 2013 Human Rights report on Yemen, NGO's reported several instances of reprisals for employees reporting corruption. The same report describes how Yemen's Ministry of Social and Labor Affairs unfairly put up barriers to human rights-related groups, whereas unrelated groups experienced few difficulties.[6]
National Dialogue
See also
- International Anti-Corruption Academy
- Group of States Against Corruption
- International Anti-Corruption Day
- ISO 37001 Anti-bribery management systems
- United Nations Convention against Corruption
- OECD Anti-Bribery Convention
- Transparency International
Notes
- ^ Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen
References
- ^ a b c d e Dbwan, Abdulmoez (Dec 4, 2014). "Fighting the Culture of Corruption in Yemen". World Bank.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "Yemen: Corruption, Capital Flight and Global Drivers of Conflict". Chatham House. Sep 1, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Corruption in Yemen: Screening of Destructive Beast". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Sep 30, 2010.
- ^ a b c Marriot, Jane (10 December 2013). "Corruption: a spotlight on Yemen". Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
- ^ a b c d "Yemen's Saleh netted $60bn through corruption". Middle East Monitor. Feb 25, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Despite new era, anti-corruption agenda struggles in Yemen". IRIN. Apr 29, 2014.
- ^ "The ABCs of the CPI: How the Corruption Perceptions Index is calculated". Transparency.org. 20 December 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ "Corruption Perceptions Index 2023: Yemen". Transparency.org. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ "CPI 2023 for Middle East & North Africa: Dysfunctional approach to fighting corruption undermines progress". Transparency.org. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ Salisbury, Peter (Oct 15, 2013). "Why Yemen must conquer corruption to save the poor". CNN.
- ^ a b c "Yemen". Freedom House.