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Justice Sector Corruption in Ethiopia 209
Finally, efforts to contrast the interview data on corruption (if not political
interference) with evidence from investigative bodies were frustrated because
none of the three agencies, at either the federal or the regional level, appears
to have a program for actively seeking out and investigating corruption among
its members. One high-level judge did note that, faced with suspected
corruption, the usual response was to encourage the person to resign,
given the difficulty of proving anything decisively. All agencies have complaints
offices and disciplinary bodies (often combined), but these appear
(as some interviewees admitted) to be relatively underused by the public
(Gidey 2007). The complaints office for the federal police is used largely
by employees to register labor grievances. For the most part, citizens concerned
about corruption turn to the regional and federal anticorruption
commissions. Both the FEACC and the Amhara commission reported
receiving most complaints about police; the FEACC said it had received
41 in the last two years. The Amhara commission estimated perhaps 50
complaints about judges annually; the FEACC could not provide an estimate.
15 Representatives of both commissions agreed that complaints
about judges often give them little to work with and that they turn most
complaints about police back to the police themselves because the
amounts in question are so small. 16 According to interviews with FEACC
staff, in the past two years, one federal judge has been convicted and two
are still under investigation; five prosecutors have been investigated and
prosecuted. A former FEACC prosecutor was also convicted, but for corruption
incurred after he transferred to the customs agency. An earlier
report noted that four judges had been removed for ethical violations, and
three had been admonished in prior years (World Bank 2004a).
Now the discussion focuses on the three value chains and the areas
where corruption and political interference were either present or absent.
The System Organization Chain: Personnel Management
As previously noted, personnel management is the only area of system
organization covered in this study because it is frequently (in other
systems) a focus of corruption in its own right and a contributor to
corruption in other areas. The system by which personnel are chosen,
evaluated, promoted, transferred, and disciplined has an enormous impact
on their own incentives; can be a means of controlling their actions; and
can also create internal networks for influence trafficking, political intervention,
or simple rent extraction. For the most part, corruption in other
areas of system organization may impede operations (especially when it