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Justice Sector Corruption in Ethiopia 183
suggested that certain cultural constraints (“Ethiopians do not complain”)
might have interfered with this approach.
The interviews were supplemented with two formal and two informal
focus groups. The latter used “windows of opportunity”—when other
workers spontaneously joined interviews conducted with one of their
colleagues. A structured questionnaire (of eight questions) was also used
in the informant interviews and focus groups, but because respondents
were not picked randomly, the questionnaire has no statistical significance
and was used simply to track the dominant trends in the informants’
answers for entry into the value chain.
A further impediment was that many respondents felt they could
not answer questions that required experience they lacked (for example,
how bribe amounts were determined or what happened in other
organizations). Nonetheless, this “impediment,” like the lack of information
on citizen perceptions, may also have been an advantage
because it eliminated answers based only on impressions and conventional
wisdom.
Overview of Findings
The results—indicating where corruption was most or least common (or
nonexistent)—can hardly be considered definitive given (a) the dependence
on “knowledgeable actors’” perceptions and willingness to recount
them; (b) the considerable disagreement among the roughly 60 persons
interviewed individually and in focus groups; and (c) the fieldwork’s limitation
to the federal system and that of one more-developed region
(Amhara).
Nonetheless, the following generalizations can be forwarded:
• Sector corruption appears less extensive in Ethiopia than in many
African or Latin American countries. Although personnel management
has some problematic aspects, one major conclusion is that justice sector
positions are not purchased, thus eliminating an incentive often
found elsewhere.
• Corruption, where it occurs, takes one of two forms: (a) political interference
with the independent actions of courts or other sector agencies,
or (b) payment or solicitation of bribes or other considerations to alter
a decision or action.
• An ongoing modernization program, which is most advanced in the
courts, has eliminated or sharply reduced some forms of corruption
common elsewhere (such as petty bribes to perform normal duties).