Petty and grand corruption and the conflict dynamics in Northern Uganda

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between corruption and conflict in northern Uganda, using the perspectives of local business owners as an inroad. The purpose is to highlight how various types of corruption can be related to conflict dynamics in different ways, depending on the context. The article argues that in post-war northern Uganda grand corruption can be seen as related to the conflict dynamics, while petty corruption is generally not seen that way. At the centre of the conflict in northern Uganda lies a deep mutual mistrust between the population in the north and the central government. Therefore corruption in the public sector that occurs at the central level, in particular with regard to funds aimed at the north, tends to be associated with the conflict, whereas the various types of petty corruption encountered by local businesspersons in Gulu, the largest town in northern Uganda, are seen by these actors as normal or as ‘the way things are’.

Keywords:

• corruption
• local business owners
• Uganda
• conflict

Acknowledgements

I want to thank three anonymous referees and the editors for constructive comments and suggestions, and Gordon Tamm for contributions to an earlier draft of this paper as well as valuable input to the current version. I am also grateful for comments from and discussions with the other authors in this special issue in connection with a workshop on ‘Corruption in Post-conflict Societies’ held in Gothenburg, October 2013.

Notes

1. Philp, “Peacebuilding and Corruption”; Cheng and Zaum, “Introduction”; and Cheng and Zaum, Corruption and Post-conflict Peacebuilding.

2. Cheng, “Private and Public Interests.”

3. Le Billon, “Buying Peace.”

4. Sometimes business actors are seen as drivers and beneficiaries of corrupt practices, in collusion with public officials. Ufere et al., “Merchants of Corruption”. Sometimes they are seen as victims of corruption, highlighting the cost of corruption for business. Wanyama et al., “Frameworks Underpinning Corporate Governance”; and Svensson, “Who must Pay?”. See also Lambert-Mogiliansky et al., “Strategic Analysis of Petty Corruption”, for an analysis of the role of both actors.

5. Rose-Ackerman, Corruption and Government.

6. See Transparency International’s website:

http://www.transparency.org/whoweare/organisation/faqs_on_corruption/2/.

7. Philp, “Peacebuilding and Corruption”; and Uslaner, Corruption, Inequality and the Rule of Law.

8. Uslaner, Corruption, Inequality and the Rule of Law; and Olken, “Corruption Perceptions.”

9. Wiegratz, “Fake Capitalism?”

10. See, for example, Mashali “Analysing the Relationship”; and Clarke, “How Petty is Petty Corruption?”

11. International Alert, “Building a Peace Economy.”

12. For an excellent overview of the emergence and dynamics of the lra, see Allan and Vlassenroot, The Lord’s Resistance Army, particularly the editors’ Introduction.

13. Shaw and Mbabazi, “Two Africas? Two Ugandas?”

14. Dolan, Social Torture.

15. International Alert, Contributing to a Peace Economy. A concrete example confirming this perception was a proposal in 2003 by Salim Saleh, the president’s brother and a senior army officer, that ‘idle’ land in the north should be turned into militarised working farms, with local youth as workforce. Zeller, “Bringing the State back In.”

16. International Alert, “Building a Peace Economy”; and Allen and Vlassenroot, The Lord’s Resistance Army.

17. The partly illicit regional and cross-border trade with Sudan and the DRC that is intimately linked with the regional conflict dynamics has not been a prominent activity in Gulu district. See Titeca, “Tycons and Contraband”; Schomerus and Titeca, “Deals and Dealings”; and Raeymaekers, “Protection for Sale?” for analysis of cross-border trade, conflict and ‘corruption’ in the region.

18. Allen and Vlassenroot, The Lord’s Resistance Army.

19. Dolan, Social Torture.

20. Interview, academic staff member, Gulu University, February 2, 2013; and Zeller, “Bringing the State back In.”

21. Based on a survey conducted in 2009–10 the percentage of the population living below the poverty line is 46% in the northern region, 24% in the eastern region, 21% in the western region and 11% in the central region (where the capital, Kampala, is located). ubos, Statistical Abstracts.

22. Transparency International, The East African Bribery Index.

23. Transparency International, http://www.transparency.org/country#UGA.

24. Chêne, Overview of Corruption.

25. Bukuluki, “‘When I Steal’.”

26. The Inspectorate of Government (ig) is a independent institution charged with the responsibility of eliminating corruption, and abuse of authority and of public office. Its powers and mandate are enshrined in the Ugandan constitution. See its website: http://www.igg.go.ug/.

27. ig, Final Report.

28. Human Rights Watch, Letting the Big Fish Swim.

29. Tangri and Mwenda, “Politics, Donors.”

30. Office of the Auditor General, Special Investigation Report.

31. The opm scandal and its consequences has been a regular topic in Ugandan newspapers, appearing almost daily during the first months after its exposure in October 2012. For summarising articles, see The Daily Monitor, December 27, 2012; and The Independent, February 17, 2013.

32. One response was that a number of ngos and activists, including a prominent bishop, started a campaign called ‘Black Monday’, where activists dressed in black every Monday and distributed flyers about corruption, leading to the arrest of the activists, including the bishop. The Daily Monitor, December 3, 2012; January 8, 2013; February 7, 2013; and February 12, 2013.

33. The Daily Monitor, March 21, 2013; and June 13, 2013.

34. Carbonnier, “Private Sector.” For the greed versus grievance debate, see Ballentine and Sherman, The Political Economy of Armed Conflict; Collier and Hoeffler, Greed and Grievance; and Berdal, “Beyond Greed and Grievance.” With regard to the liberal turn, see, for example, Duffield, Global Governance.

35. Besada, From Civil Strife to Peace Building; Killick et al., The Role of Local Business; and Nelson, The Business of Peace.

36. Fort, “Peace through Commerce”; and Penh, “New Convergences in Poverty Reduction.”

37. Nelson, The Business of Peace; International Alert, Local Business, Local Peace; and Sweetman, Business, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding.

38. Oetzel et al., “Business and Peace”; and Branzei and Abdelnour, “Another Day, Another Dollar.”

39. Brück et al., “Business under Fire.”

40. Raeymaekers, “Protection for Sale?”; Schomerus and Titeca, “Deals and Dealings”; and Titeca, “Tycoons and Contraband.”

41. They all own their own business. The businesses in agro-processing and construction have 20–40 employees, while the retail traders have few if any employees.

42. The interviewees also travel, of course, although it is not their main business. The retail traders travel regularly to Kampala to restock their shops. Those in agro-processing have a close collaboration with farmers in the rural areas around Gulu or buy input products from other parts of the country. Some of them sell to Sudan and might travel in order to make business connections and deals, but they do not conduct the regular transportation and trading themselves. Most of their products are sold and consumed in and around Gulu.

43. The interviewees may be few in number, but with regard to manufacturing and construction the total number of businesses in Gulu are few as well (estimates based on the ubos Business Enterprise Survey, 2011 arrive at a figure of roughly 300 manufacturing and construction firms in the whole of Gulu district).

44. The larger research project on the social embeddedness of business owners in Uganda involved extensive field work in various parts of the country in 2008–09, including over 100 interviews with business owners and other relevant informants, as well as a household survey on informal resource redistribution in social networks. Furthermore, the study is informed by the author’s general familiarity with social, political and economic conditions in Uganda, based on regular visits to and work in relation to the country since the early 1990s. The research project was not specifically focused on corruption, but the issue came up regularly in interviews, not just in Gulu, and is a common topic in media and public discussions in Uganda in general. In order to dig deeper into the connections between corruption and conflict a follow-up visit to northern Uganda was made in January–February 2013.

45. This is in violation of the Leadership Code Act of 2002, which clearly states that a civil servant is not allowed to do business with government and that this extends to the person’s family members and relatives.

46. Interview with Mr Mark Moro, Director North, Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, February 1, 2013

47. One US dollar is worth about 2600 Ugandan shillings (as of January 2013).

48. Interview with owner of construction company, Gulu, February 1, 2013.

49. Interview with owner of agri-business, Gulu, January 31, 2013.

50. This arguments relates to Rothstein’s view of corruption as a collective action dilemma. See his article in this issue.

51. Interview with district procurement officer, Gulu, February 1, 2013.

52. Interview with owner of construction company, Gulu, July 1, 2009.

53. Svensson, “Who must Pay?”

54. Reinikka and Svensson, “Confronting Competition.”

55. ig, Final Report.

56. ig, Second Annual Report.

57. Ntayi et al., “Moral Schemas and Corruption.”

58. Interview with owner of construction company, Kampala, November 5, 2008.

59. The chair of the Gulu branch of the national Chamber of Commerce explicitly said, with reference to problems with procurement, that Kacita, the Kampala City Traders Association, has the same problem with procurement with local government, and that they had also raised this issue publicly.

60. Interview with owner of construction company, Gulu, January 31, 2013.

61. See notes 32 and 33.

62. Interview with Mr Martin Okumu, Head of Communication, Uganda National Chamber of Commerce, Kampala, February 4, 2013.

63. Over 60% of the low-income earners in the northern region reported a loss of confidence in the government as a result of corruption in service delivery, as compared to around 40% in the western and eastern regions and below 20% in the central region. ig, Final Report.

64. Uslaner, Corruption, Inequality and the Rule of Law.

65. Blundo and Olivier de Sardan, “The Popular Semiology of Corruption.”

66. Bukuluki, “‘When I Steal’”; and Flanary and Watt, “The State of Corruption.”

67. Smith, A Culture of Corruption. The view that fraud is permeating society is also expressed in Ugandan popular music, as in the songs ‘Kiwani’ by Bobi Wine and ‘Bayuda’ by Jose Chameleone.

68. Cheng and Zaum, Corruption and Post-conflict Peacbuilding.

69. Schomerus and Titeca, “Deals and Dealings.”

70. Cheng defines ‘conflict capital’, as a ‘specific derivative of social capital…that is created out of shared experiences of armed conflict…[that]…emphasizes the “stickiness” of the social bonds created out of war, and the ways in which relationships forged around violence are more likely to persist beyond the end of war’. Cheng, “Private and Public Interests.” Presumably this goes beyond the interactions of direct co-combatants to one of making available even second-hand accounts of the violent conflict as a potential mental and behavioural reference point, eg to underemployed youth in that specific context.

71. Shaw and Mbabazi, “Two Africas? Two Ugandas?”

72. Dolan, Social Torture.