Cathy Le Feuvre

Corruption? Not me!

You’re in a long queue outside a night club in the rain. You know if you slip the bouncer at the door a fiver you’ll get in first and jump ahead of all the other poor souls freezing on the doorstep. What do you do?

You think corruption has nothing to do with you? Think again!

In the UK - a 'civilised' and 'developed' nation -   most of us think corruption happens somewhere else. It doesn’t affect us. That sort of greedy dealing only happens in ‘corrupt’ societies, doesn’t it?

Of course, few if any of us will be making secret deals with corrupt government officials to secure business contracts, or will have been involved in illegal price fixing, or will have deliberately evaded paying our taxes. But if we think that corruption is only something that happens in ‘developing countries’ by people who are somehow less moral than us, and not here in our more sophisticated culture, then we need to just look around and examine at our own behaviour.

If you give a backhander to that bouncer to jump the queue, you’ve effectively given him, or her, a bribe to gain an advantage for yourself over all the other would-be revellers who are still out in the cold on the doorstep. If, to make ends meet for your struggling business, you’ve offered a ‘gift’ to a contractor to get a better deal than your competitors, then you’ve been involved in a form of corruption. You may think it’s just ‘good business’ but it’s actually a form of bribery. 

WHAT IS 'CORRUPTION'?

It takes many forms – deliberate tax evasion, that blatant bribery, secret business deals, abuse of power by people in government, business and even the church –and where there is corruption, it is the poorest of the poor who are worst affected. Corruption is one of the main causes of poverty in the world today! 

This week the EXPOSED campaign is 'Shining a Light' on Corruption but over the past year I've been privileged to work with the very small, inspiring and dedicated EXPOSED team who work tirelessly to make a difference on behalf of the world's poor. 

 

The EXPOSED team based in Salvation Army Territorial HQ in London got hold of a US$1 trillion note! That's how much goes missing in bribes each year. EXPOSED is asking the world's powerful leaders to step up efforts to combat bribery and tax avoidance.

EXPOSED is an international coalition of Christian organisations that is challenging the global church, business and governments to highlight the impact of corruption on the poorest of the poor. It represents millions of people who have already caught the vision of what a world without corruption could look like.

Since EXPOSED was launched last year, thousands of people have become involved and the message has now reached 150 countries.  Across the world EXPOSED hopes to reach 100 million people – Christian people, people of other faith and of no faith -  to encourage them to speak out against corruption in all areas of public life. People are being encouraged to set up ‘bribe boxes’ in their churches to declare bribery in their communities, to write to church leaders, business leaders and politicians to take action to resist and fight corruption in their nations, and to promote increased integrity and ethics in business. The stories emerging are just amazing!

EXPOSED is challenging governments to tighten up on financial regulations to ensure that taxes are paid in the nations where the profits are earned and to introduce policies which create fairer societies. When taxes are not declared, then it those already living in poverty who suffer most - lost income can't be spent on services which benefit the society, ensure good healthcare and education.

SHINING A LIGHT ON CORRUPTION

Duringthis EXPOSED Week of Action (October 14-20) up to 2000 Vigils are being held around the world encouraging people to consider the impact of corruption on the poor.

It all kicked off here in the UK on Monday night at St Paul's Cathedral in London and I was privileged to be present. There was music and prayers and inspiring words as we were among the first across the world to 'Shine a Light on Corruption'. Since then, people have been holding similar vigils worldwide. And hopefully government, business and church leaders, as well as the media and the general population will have started to become more aware of the scourge that is corruption and the terrible effects on the poorest of the poor and the duty we all have to get involved to see it end!

I'M 'ONE IN A MILLION'

This week there is also a major push on collecting signatures for the EXPOSED Global Call to End Corruption. EXPOSED is aiming for 1million signatures on this petition which presses for more open tax regimes and greater transparency in payments to combat bribery and tax avoidance. This Global Call will be presented to world leaders at the G20 Summit to be held in Brisbane Australia in November 2014.

I've already become 'One in a Million' by signing the Global Call to End Corruption. Please add your signature and name on the EXPOSED website 

The EXPOSED campaign and our action at every level is vital important if we are to start to see some real justice in our world, fairer division of the world's resources, and the end of  greed and corruption. 

You might not think Corruption has got anything to do with you. But I encourage you to think outside your own circumstances, and to stand with the poor, and with the EXPOSED campaign!

(Some parts of this article also appear in an article I've written for this week's WarCry, the publication of The Salvation Army UK and Ireland.)

Should have stayed in Hill Street!

My first 'real' job was in banking. I'd done the usual round of student summer work - waitressing, chambermaiding, working in coffee shops and even a hairdressers - but after I left school I decided university wasn't for me, after all, and I opted to enter the world of work and get myself onto the earning ladder. I got a job in a Trust Company.

It was just as computerisation was getting underway - the computer for the company took up one whole floor of the four storey building - but I was a ledger clerk. I was the lowest of the low, bar the cleaner. A little bit like Bob Cratchit but without the Dickensian costumes and a boss called Scrooge, and the office was a little warmer than poor old Bob had to put up with.

But Bob I was - as I sat in my little corner, writing numbers in a ledger, using a massive old calculator to total columns. I learned a lot, including (very quickly) that this was not the life for me and that I should pretty sharpish re-apply for a university place.

Fortunately, I got one - Bath University in England .... the BEST decision I ever made because it turned out to be an excellent place of learning, and fun, and excitement and friendship.

I did last a year at the old bank, and continued to learn and save, which meant that I had some funds when I eventually left my home  island of Jersey for Bath. This extra cash in the bank meant I didn't have to scrimp and save quite as much as my fellow students and this freed me up during the long university summer vacations.  Which meant I could travel to Maine in the USA, to a summer camp called Camp Sebago where I worked as a counselor for two summers.  Again, another fantastic time in my life, but that's another whole story!

Why do I bring this up now?

I'm beginning to wonder -  what IF I had stuck it out at the old finance house in Hill Street, St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands?

Well, I wouldn't have a group of most loyal lifelong friends who I met at University. I wouldn't have travelled to the USA to beautiful Maine and I would not have had so many life changing experiences. I would not have, eventually, become a journalist, broadcaster, TV producer, writer, charity PR, trainer and so much more which has given me such an exciting creative life and brought me so many joys.... and some heartaches.

I would not be the person I am today.

HOWEVER.....

I MIGHT now be sitting on a nice little earner, with a BIG FAT pension and annual bonuses way out of proportion to my workload and ultimate contribution to society at least in comparison to people who really make a difference  - like teachers, and nurses, doctors and carers.

We heard today that the 'boss' of the State-owned Royal Bank of Scotland not only takes home over ONE MILLION POUNDS in salary every year, but he's to receive (and it's not the first time apparently) bonuses equivalent to almost that again, in shares in the Bank.

I listened to the BBC this morning and heard commentators and politicians wittering on about how this gentleman had contributed so much and kept the Bank on an even keel ... sort of.... even in the current dire economic climate and anyway, banking needs incentives and rewards to keep 'top' people in place and if the government (as they have promised they will) put a stop to these large and rather immoral payments then the board might resign, along with the boss and then the share price of RBS would be in the toilet I guess and .... etc etc etc.

First - I'm sure Mr RBS does do a good job, but this latter argument sounds a little bit like blackmail and greed to me and not entirely in the spirit of trying to help the country out it's massive economic spiral down to financial hell.

Second - I know I'm trivialising this just a little. Having worked in finance, even if briefly and at a very low level, and studied some economics and more, and having been a general hack who has over the years turned her mind and pen to most things (including business reporting) -  I know enough about economics  to know that I've made some huge generalisations here and of course, 'it's not as simple as that'.

I understand why bonuses might SEEM vital in a competitive banking culture which expects bonuses even when they are not particuarly earned. But .... in the last 20 years the gap between the high fliers in banking (many of whom were responsible for the finanical crisis of the past few years, if not directly then indirectly through their corporate actitivites over many greedy years) and us ordinary people in the street is just now IMMORAL. Someone, somewhere has to insist that a line is drawn. And I guess that's the government because us mere mortals can't effect any change at all. We can complain at the injustice of it all. We might insist that our RBS man willingly gives up his bonus - this year - but it won't make a spot of difference while the finance and banking culture in the UK and across the world, still expects to operate in such a perverse way. 

And finally ...

THIRD  - I'm beginning to wish I had stayed in Hill Street!

 

End Corruption - End Poverty

When the leaders of the world's major economies meet in Cannes in France this Thursday and Friday (November 3rd and 4th) there's no doubt about what will be the main focus of attention.  

The world economy is, of course, in a mess. The most recent crisis in the Eurozone, which the Europeans undoubtedly believed would be partly resolved before Thursday, is thrown into utter confusion again. The deal to solve the debt crisis was almost there until the Greeks announced that they would put the latest aid package (including a 50% debt write-off for Greece) to a referendum. Opinion polls in Greece have already suggested that most people don't support the deal!

I'm no economist but it doesn't take a genius to realise that the problems facing the many millions of poor people across the globe WON'T be high on the agenda in Cannes.

But I think they should be - well, if not HIGH on the agenda at least not forgotten!

While everyone is rightly concentrating on the needs and worries of the rich economies, there are those who are urging them not to forget the desperate needs of the those living in dire poverty. 

At the moment I'm doing some PR for Micah Challenge International, a global coalition active in over 40 countries encouraging Christians to be committed to the poor, and hold governments accountable to the Millennium Development Goals. These were signed in the year 2000 when 189 countries also pledged to halve world poverty by the year 2015.

So although the state of the world economy will undoubtedly dominate discussion in Cannes at the end of this week, we can't afford to let up. If we are to really make a difference to the economic inequalities and poverty affecting the 90% of nations not represented at the G20 meeting, most of which are poor, then we can't afford to miss any opportunities to speak into the subject. 

As I've learnt fairly recently, one significant factor in world poverty is corruption. In the PR we've been sending out to the media, the International Director of Micah Challenge Rev Joel Edwards is quoted as saying :

'Corruption at the higest level in some countries means that the very poor remain very poor, with resources going to a few people at the top, or to outside agencies who have bribed their way into contracts. And even when social or aid programmes are specifically designed to help the poor, funds are often diverted from front-line services because of bribery or inefficiency.'

It's a massive problem - just last week BBC reporter Fergal Keane reported on the effects of corruption in the food crisis/famine in Northern Kenya. As one anti-corruption campaigner in Kenya said, the drought they have is a corruption, governance drought. It's what has made a drought into a famine.

Click here to watch the film.

Micah Challenge is urging the G20 nations to think about ways corruption can be monitored and limited, and asking them to regulate more on tax havens, the existence of which also helps to divert money which could be spent on projects to help those barely surving in poverty. In addition, Micah are also reminding the 19 leading economies plus the EU (that's the '20' in G20) that last year at G20 Seoul in South Korea they recommitted to addressing corruption. A report is due this November. Some of us will be watching out for that!

If you want to find out more, please read the press release I've worked on with them - click here for that!

I know lots of people will be thinking and asking  'How can we consider the issue of global poverty, or think about digging deeper into our own pockets to give more to the poor when we're struggling ourselves?'

But as Amanda Jackson, Head of Advocay and Campaigns at Micah Challenge, told several BBC radio faith presenters in interviews last Sunday morning, it might not necessarily be about us giving more. Indeed, for some of us, although we're not anywhere as near as impoverished as those who struggle even to find enough to feed their children once a day, additional generosity might prove difficult at the moment.

But if the world's resources were more wisely distributed, and a trillion dollars was not lost to corruption every year, as estimated by the World Bank, there might be more than enough to go around.

As the United Nations reported just last week

"The point is that the impact of corruption cannot be measured in dollars and cents. It is the impact to the child which cannot be educated. It is the impact of the person whose life is in danger because the doctor would not treat him without a bribe. It is the impact of the road that is never built. It is the impact of the bridge that collapses.”

There's absolutely no need for so many millions of people to remain in abject poverty.

As Christians there's an imperative for us to ensure fairer economic models and model integrity. I, for one, am glad that Micah Challenge is here to remind us of our own duty, and to keep the leaders of the world on their toes.