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122 Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia
progress in attracting finance to the sector. The government of Ethiopia
estimates that to meet its UAP target for rural water supply, annual expenditure
of more than Br 1.1 billion (US$99 million) is required, of which
more than 90 percent is already committed. At the same time, dramatic
reforms have resulted in the development of a programmatic approach to
improve aid effectiveness in tandem with large-scale decentralization—
both political and administrative.
The sheer scale of investment required to meet the UAP target raises
inevitable questions about how well the money is spent: Is corruption a
significant issue? Might it affect the delivery of basic services? If so, by
how much? Internationally, water is viewed as a high-risk sector because
of the financial flows involved, weak government oversight, and significant
public-private interactions involved in infrastructure provision.
However, there is little concrete evidence of specific risks or of the effectiveness
of different interventions and reforms that might reduce them.
In Ethiopia, no previous studies have attempted a systematic assessment
of the nature and extent of corruption, either within the water sector in
general or in the provision of rural drinking water supply in particular.
In view of the sums of money involved, ensuring that funding translates
into improved services for poor people is a clear priority. Yet little is known
about how robust or effective the current systems are to prevent corruption
and enable the national program to meet its goals. Internationally,
recent initiatives have identified corruption as a contributor to poor water
governance and, more specifically, as a constraint on service delivery to
those most in need. Is this the case in Ethiopia?
Objectives
Against this background, the study of corruption risk discussed in this
chapter aims to shed light on the importance, scope, and nature of corruption
in the provision of rural drinking water supplies. 1 The study has
three broad objectives:
• Map the different forms, links, and scope of corruption in Ethiopia’s
rural water supply along the service delivery “value chain”—from policy
development (at the top of the chain) to scheme implementation and
management (at the bottom)
• Identify particular points along the value chain that are vulnerable to
corruption, backed up with qualitative and quantitative data on perceptions
and evidence
• Work with key sector stakeholders to validate findings and develop
recommendations to address vulnerabilities.