Editorial: Cameroon can't emerge with soaring corruption!.

As The Guardian Post reported yesterday, the Chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, CONAC, Rev. Dr Dieudonne Massi Gams, has revealed that his organisation received 7,548 denunciations last year, which was higher than the 7,061 cases documented in 2022.

His report noted that the government has lost some 114 billion FCFA to corruption, with the education sector most affected. 

This, he expressed regret, has increased in 2023, as compared to less than 5 billion FCFA lost in 2022. Rev. Massi Gams did not mince words when outlining the severity of the issue.

“Corruption continues to wreak havoc in our society,” he stated, while regretting that “despite ongoing efforts to combat the ill, it remains widespread and entrenched in various key sectors”.

Rev. Massi Gams has said on another occasion that: "If there’s one environment that must remain healthy in all circumstances, it’s the education sector, because it’s the mould that shapes tomorrow’s leaders and citizens. If we want a corruption-free Cameroon, we have to invest today to spare the education sector from this gangrene”.

According to Rev. Dr Massi Gams, the start of the new school year is usually a time when acts of corruption in the education sector multiply. 

He regretted that the face of corruption in the education sector is complex and varied, depending on the time of the year.

He could not be faulted for telling the bitter truth. Corruption in the education sector is a major obstacle to realising the universal right to education and to achieving emergence in 2035.

Unfortunately, education has been rated by CONAC as "one of the most corrupt sectors in Cameroon".

As Transparency International, IT has noted, "corruption undermines the quality and availability of education services and distorts access to quality education. This disproportionally affects the poor, rendering disadvantaged children reliant on substandard education services, where little learning can take place. It affects virtually all aspects of education, from school infrastructure to teacher salaries and academic curricula". 

Because of corruption, research has indicated that resources are pilfered, resulting in scarcity of learning and research equipment, poor-quality school facilities, the hiring of fewer and underpaid teachers, larger class sizes and increased workloads for teachers.

Scholars are also unanimous that "Corruption increases the cost of education and leads to lower academic standards, resulting in distorted test scores and school rankings, and lower satisfaction with the public education system".

As a result, corruption undermines the public’s trust in the education system and its usefulness, leading to higher drop-out and lower enrolment rates.

Lack of resources, low quality of education or poorly qualified personnel in public education institutions may also drive students who can afford it to look for private alternatives, exacerbating inequalities and undermining equal access to education and personal development opportunities.

The vice, especially in higher education, also affects enrolment rates in university and contributes to a lowering of academic standards and the recognition of degrees and certificates, ultimately undermining students’ qualifications and prospects for employment.

It has also been established that corruption in education opens the door for a “brain-drain” at higher levels of education, forcing education professionals to leave an institution, region or country to increase their income, improve their working conditions, or increase their professional development opportunities

Rev. Massi Gams has classified the situation as “disturbing, but it also represents an opportunity for change.”

For him, that change "requires sustained efforts from all levels and sectors, for it is only together that they can kick out corruption from the system".

It is a bottom-up approach that will not and has never worked. A system that is described by gullible members of the public as dysfunctional. What is urgently needed is a top to bottom approach. 

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, puts it as "actually functional and profitable for corrupt actors. Whether falling under the label of political cronyism, crony capitalism, political party cartels, oligarchy, plutocracy and even kleptocracy, widespread patterns of private and public corruption construct social systems that are rigged in the private interest of those at the top".

For the much-needed change to have an impact, it should begin from the top, with the declaration of assets, otherwise corruption will continue to spike each year at the detriment of economic emergence. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3249 of Friday October 04, 2024