While the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) emerges from a long period of violence and instability, it also faces a legacy of deep-rooted bribery at all levels of society, threatening social and political institutions with failure. DRC has suffered from modest bribes to high fraud through shady financial dealings. As a result, corruption exists in various sectors, including the police, legal system, public administration, and mining or extractive industry, despite the country’s anti-corruption initiatives.
The risk of corruption remains very high within the Congolese security establishment. The nation’s patriotic forces have been reorganized, and police officers have been replaced by allegedly malevolent personalities who form tight bonds with the president. According to Voices for Transparency, bribery involving police in DRC is the highest of all the surveyed countries, with 75% of those who had dealt with the law enforcers paying an inducement in the preceding year (Kiala). The figure is 80% based on the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) (Lee-Jones). Based on Figure 1, the policing sector is leading in rates of corruption. Regrettably, the anti-corruption drive is frequently used for political purposes. The presence of a profit elite and a sophisticated web of government favors permeating all sections of society makes creating publicly accountable institutions and policing systems much more difficult.
The judicial institutions are rife with corruption posing a risk to individuals and businesses. Essentially, 74% of citizens surveyed by the GCB reported that most magistrates were corrupt (Lee-Jones). The judiciary is frequently accused of prejudice towards the opposition and civil society. In contrast, the state and its collaborators appear to be above the law regarding human rights violations (Freedom House). The private sector has raised concerns about enforcing contracts and intellectual rights protection and the courts’ lack of autonomy. Congolese courts are severely underfunded and lack the most basic infrastructure. Furthermore, magistrates are ineffective, subject to political influence, and limited to a few significant cities. Foreigners and citizens are subjected to a stringent application of a complex legal code, and once obtained, court orders are routinely disobeyed.
Corruption in the public sector poses a significant risk to enterprises. Companies starting a business may be confronted with solicitations for inducements disguised as dubious payments, unpaid taxes, or fees (Maringira). According to GCB, over 59% paid a bribe for education services, 43% for hospitals, 70% at the registry (ID), and 72% for other utilities (Transparency International). The nation’s vast informal split has been refined by the primary dysfunctionalities inside state management, universal corruption, and unclear and skewed economic plans. Similarly, land administration poses a high risk of commercial bribery. The Congolese constitution recognizes property rights, yet a dysfunctional judiciary has resulted in inconsistent execution of those rights. Nevertheless, private assets are routinely taken, primarily by people close to the President (Maringira). Bribery is rampant in tax administration, posing a significant risk to trade. Generally, enticement has become common due to corrupt duty officers and the intricacy of the levy system. Essentially, there is still a lack of transparency when it comes to state decisions and accountability (Muzinga and Awolusi). In most situations, government procurement decisions and privatization contracts are based on political rather than commercial considerations.
The natural resources department is riddled with corruption, and the administration’s handling of the country’s mineral wealth is biased. The procurement and settlement of mining rights and the participation of intermediaries and mediators are the primary sources of corruption for large-scale mining (LSM) (Lee-Jones). Extortion has been extensively reported as a method of acquiring assets in the LSM industry, resulting in the purported sale of DRC mines at considerably low prices. State-owned businesses govern the extractive industry, and the process of granting exploration and misuse permits is arbitrary and opaque. The presiding leadership has relied mainly on revenue from the natural capital sector to the detriment of the residents and the location (Muzinga and Awolusi). The mining companies are negatively affected by rampant corruption and a culture of everyday transactions, which has resulted in the misappropriation of public funds. Similarly, illegitimately licensed informal logging continues to exist in the country. Several logging licenses have also been delivered to benefit the nation’s ideological elite.
Several critical elements of a practical anti-corruption framework are in place, but implementation is lacking. According to Muzinga and Awolusi, DRC has developed legal anti-corruption institutions, but their execution is often politically motivated. The Anti-Corruption Act of 2004 provides a solid legal foundation for combating corruption and addressing crucial issues. The penal code requires any civil employer to answer for any bribery effort suspected of them (Muzinga and Awolusi). Furthermore, the republic’s anti-corruption policy is frequently driven by political considerations. The programs were implemented to combat corruption in various infrastructures and sectors. However, they have primarily operated as a tool for the administration to protect foreign money while failing to address the core causes of extortion and bribery.
In brief, despite the DRC’s anti-corruption attempts, fraud exists in various sectors, including the police, judicial system, public administration, and mining or extractive industries. Efforts by human rights watch and other institution to end this vice has not been triumphant since majority of these institutions are regulated by the corrupt people in government. Future efforts should emphasize better legal protection for whistleblowers who have proven effective in some countries.
Works Cited
Freedom House. “Democratic Republic of the Congo: Freedom in the World 2020 Country Report.” Web.
Kiala, Maurice. “Turning the Tide of Corruption in the DRC.” Voices for Transparency, Web.
Lee-Jones, Krista. “Democratic Republic of Congo: Overview of Corruption and Anticorruption.” Transparency International, Web.
Maringira, Godfrey. “Military corruption in war: stealing and connivance among Zimbabwean foot soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (1998–2002).” Review of African Political Economy, vol. 44, no. 154, 2017, pp. 611-623, Web.
Muzinga, Louis M., and Olawumi D. Awolusi. “Strategic leadership in post-conflict states: A study of The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).” Journal of Social and Development Sciences, vol. 10, no. 4(S), 2020, pp. 36-51, Web.
Transparency International. “The Global Corruption Barometer Africa 2019 Country Full Results.” Web.