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328 Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia
telephone penetration rate in Africa. It once led the regional field in the
laying of fiber-optic cable, yet suffers from severe bandwidth and reliability
problems. And it boasted the first privately owned public telecoms
service in Africa, yet is now the only nation on the continent still
permitting a state-owned company to maintain a monopoly on all telecoms
services.
Amid its low service delivery, an apparent lack of accountability, and
multiple court cases, some aspects of the sector are perceived by both
domestic and international observers to be deeply affected by corruption.
To date, however, no exposition of the scope and nature of this perceived
corruption has been developed for public understanding. This chapter
attempts to contribute to such an understanding, while offering recommendations
aimed at rebuilding confidence in the sector.
The resulting risk map provides an overview of typical corruption risks
in the sector, together with an assessment of the perceived prevalence of
these practices in Ethiopia.
Methodology
The approach adopted is diagnostic and intended neither as an audit nor
as a political economy assessment, though the latter may be warranted.
By mapping areas seen to be at high, and low, risk of corruption, attention
is then focused on those that warrant further study.
Using information obtained from document analysis, stakeholder
interviews, and consensus building workshops, key risks are unpacked for
seven defined areas of activity within the sector:
• Licensing
• Design
• Appointment of equipment suppliers
• Delivery and installation of equipment
• Construction of facilities
• Theft
• Public interface of service delivery.
Chapter Structure
The next section provides an international overview of corruption risk in
the telecommunications sector and briefly assesses why it is consid ered to
be particularly prone to corruption. The chapter then proceeds as follows:
• “The Context: The Ethiopian Telecoms Sector” describes how the
sector developed; the large investments to bring Ethiopia’s telecoms