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Education Sector Corruption in Ethiopia 97
these failings were the result of corruption per se, as opposed to simple
mismanagement, corrective action is clearly required in the form of
capacity building. As a general comment, the relatively low spending on
procurement under education budgets means the scope for corruption is
limited. On the other hand, low spending also means that the education
officers responsible for procurement may, compared with their counterparts
in higher-spending sectors such as public works, have less experience
in developing and applying procurement-related controls.
Using the standard framework, each of the corruption risks related to
supplies and equipment is now assessed in turn. Because of the relatively
low spending on this part of the education budget, the field surveys
addressed these aspects in less detail than those relating to teachers and
teaching services. For this reason, the conclusions drawn are necessarily
tentative in nature, though consistent with the totality of responses
received.
Collusion with supplier when planning for supplies or equipment—risk:
medium. Such collusion could, for instance, occur if those responsible for
the procurement of furniture for a school or university were to draw up
procurement plans with the secret support of a potential supplier. For
such an approach to succeed, there must be either a lack of transparency
or a lack of accountability in the procurement processes.
Survey responses from higher-education and TTC staff indicate that
procurement processes are widely viewed as being transparent. However,
15 percent of respondents did not consider this to be the case, and
12 percent strongly disagreed with the statement that purchasing plans are
publicly announced as required. Even if there is transparency, corruption
could still occur if accountability mechanisms are weak, such as may occur
if some people have sufficient influence to flout the rule of law, or bypass
due procedure, with impunity. Given that independent external observers
consider both law enforcement and public access to information in
Ethiopia to be “very weak” (Global Integrity 2008), there is a potential risk
in this area. However, survey respondents did not echo this view, suggesting
less corruption than the high levels that would otherwise appear likely.
Interdepartmental collusion to bypass procurement procedures—risk: low.
The survey responses provided no direct indication of interdepartmental
collusion to bypass procurement procedures. Such collusion would
require responsible parties in more than one department to work
together to ignore or manipulate specified procedures to favor specific
suppliers. Although the risk of such collusion appears low, there are