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Justice Sector Corruption in Ethiopia 211
range of interference found in many other countries. Most important,
there was universal agreement on one point: people aspiring to work in the
justice sector or to be licensed for court-related duties do not buy their
positions in Ethiopia, nor are such positions bought for them by external
patrons. This finding is consistent with general findings on public sector
positions as a whole (World Bank 2008) and is an important point because
it eliminates one potential cause of further corruption frequently reported
in other countries: the need to recoup one’s “down payment” on a job.
Likewise, there was no suggestion that appointment mechanisms
were used to form internal networks of corruption, as has been
reported in some other countries. 18 And judging from the patterns of
disciplinary actions against private attorneys, it does not appear that
the Ministry of Justice uses such actions to punish political opponents
or those openly critical of practices in the sector. Private practitioners
did express fear of reprisals for speaking out (including in the interviews),
but they seemed to believe reprisals would come in the form
of negative decisions in their court cases or perhaps legal action against
them—not from the ministry itself.
Police personnel management. Regarding personnel management in general,
the police (at least at the federal level and in Amhara) came under
the least criticism for the prevalence of political or other kinds of favoritism
in appointments and downstream personnel policies. This relatively
clean status may be because police work, at least at the lower levels, is not
regarded as an attractive job and furthermore is less politically critical
(and less likely to attract political activists of any stripe). Although the
federal police do remove an estimated 200–300 members from their
ranks annually, none of the informants suggested this was for any but
legitimate reasons. Corrupt police were not believed to have patrons to
protect them, and there were only minor complaints about a lack of
transparency in promotions and training opportunities.
There was some criticism of a tendency to put “civilians” in high-level
positions, but this practice is hardly unique to Ethiopia and has its adherents,
especially in countries attempting major reforms. 19 Without knowing
more about why the individuals were chosen or how well they have
performed in this capacity, it is impossible to say whether political connections
played an excessive role in Ethiopia.
Prosecutors’ and judges’ personnel management. Prosecutors and judges
were more controversial among the study informants, and there are more