Cotonou, March 3, 2008 — As a part of its action to promote good governance and combat corruption, the Government of Benin launched a diagnostic study to discover the experiences of the people of Benin in these two areas. Launched in 2005, the survey ended in 2006 and involved a total of 3,044 persons in households, 1,024 government officials, and 356 companies.
The main objective was to study the experiences of Beninese citizens, business people, and government officials with regard to governance, state effectiveness in providing public services, institutional vulnerabilities, transparency, the quality of regulations, and corruption, and to estimate the cost of corruption practices to households and the private sector.
The survey was conducted with technical support from the World Bank Institute and financial support from the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the embassies of the Netherlands and Denmark in Benin. The Cabinet d'études, de recherches et de traitements informatiques (Study, Research, and Information Consultancy, CERTI) conducted the data gathering and analysis and drafted the survey report.
The Country Manager of the World Bank in Benin, Joseph Baah-Dwomoh, celebrated his institution’s contribution to the execution of this study and the staging of various dissemination workshops. In his view, the importance attached to these two issues by his institution is linked to its mission of poverty reduction.
Joseph Baah-Dwomoh, World Bank County Manager in Benin
"This natural choice is justified by the fact that a great number of studies on economic growth and development have concluded that all efforts targeting the promotion of development and poverty reduction would be strongly affected if the limitations related to bad governance and corruption were not addressed in a sectoral and systematic manner. For this reason, the main messages disseminated through the World Bank’s Governance and Anti-Corruption Strategy demand that governance be positioned as a cross-cutting theme in all the projects and programs supported by the institution in its member countries, while ensuring that these projects and programs have mechanisms to promote transparency and corruption,” he declared at the time of the dissemination workshop.
Corruption in Benin Deemed “troubling”
The survey’s findings reveal that for 93 percent of persons interviewed, corruption remains a troubling problem in Benin. Moreover, 79 percent of these persons are concerned about its trends. According to the study report, the problems found to be serious by households, companies, and government officials are, among other things, the cost of living, unemployment, inflation, and corruption in the public and private sectors. These persons have an unfavorable opinion of how essential public services work, including customs, justice, traffic and judicial police, taxes and fees, electricity services, and procurement.
Dissemination Workshop Participants
More specifically, the survey reveals that the legal system is perceived as discriminatory against the poor, with major obstacles such as the length and complexity of procedures, high legal fees, and the influencing of court decisions. With regard to the education sector, the questions raised generally focused on the lack of infrastructure and equipment, the cost of access to education, and the payment of extra charges or gifts for children to move up to the next grade. In the case of the health sector, the concerns related more to the official and unofficial costs of benefits. With regard to other sectors, it can be observed in the report, among other things, that subscribers to the power company have no confidence in the public power supply, and that a certain number of government officials have detected irregularities in the use of funds from their offices during the past three years. [See the full report (PDF in French) of the survey for more details.]
Dissemination of the survey’s findings
The public was informed of the survey’s findings during a series of workshops at the national and regional levels, and with the media, held in January 2008.
The State Minister tasked with forecasting, development, and evaluation of the public action, Pascal Irénée Koupaki, recognized that the problem of corruption is “critical for the economic emergence and development of our country.”
While chairing the national workshop from January 15-17, 2008, he underlined that collective commitment to combating corruption and promoting good governance in the management of public affairs is an obligation under the Constitution of Benin.
State Minister Pascal Irénée Koupaki at the dissemination workshop
He believes that, “Corruption warps market rules, leading to serious distortions with respect to the freedom of competition and is hardly conducive to the optimal allocation of budgetary resources. Moreover, corruption greatly hinders our country’s economic performance and is a deterrent to private investments.” Minister Koupaki reaffirmed the Government of Benin’s unwavering commitment to combating the scourge. “It is a necessity, and also one of the critical conditions without which the chances of bringing Benin toward economic emergence are compromised,” he added.
During a workshop organized on January 18, 2008 with journalists from the Beninese media, particular emphasis was placed on the survey’s analysis and processing tools, and especially the role of the media in promoting good governance and combating corruption in Benin. Discussions also focused on constraints and opportunities for media professionals to contribute to combating corruption at the legal and institutional levels and in terms of capacity building.
Some of the recommendations made
Participants at the national workshop drafted various recommendations for promoting good governance and combating corruption in Benin. Particular focus was placed on: integrating the teaching of good governance into training programs; strengthening, updating, and organizing the legal and regulatory framework; promoting a culture of respect for established rules (constitutions, laws, rules, procedure manuals) at all levels; making controls, sanctions, and compensation systematic; organizing a more comprehensive study on corruption in each sector; advocacy in order to catalyze the passing of legislative enactments related to corruption during sessions of the National Assembly; and the strengthening of monitoring and prevention mechanisms, particularly the Audit Office, as well as civil society and the media, by providing them with adequate resources.
As a contribution to the effort, the journalists issued a certain number of recommendations to promote good governance within their professional body. The recommendations essentially focused on: decriminalizing the press; promoting an action framework for the profession; financing of press associations and institutionalizing state assistance to the press; redefining the conditions for establishing press associations; implementing the joint agreement for the media; regulating the advertising mix and communication contracts; and enactment of a tax system based upon the realities faced by media companies.
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