Working in the world’s most corrupt countries

Read also: Corruption can, at worst, take lives

Corruption can be found in all countries, although the magnitude and methods vary. Every year, Transparency International ranks the countries of the world based on the degree of corruption in the public sector. Predictably, the lowest ranking countries are the ones affected by war and conflict. Somalia is still ranked as the most corrupt country in the world, followed by South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Irak. NRC works in all these countries.

“We need to be honest about corruption being a huge risk factor in our line of work. Therefore, we perform local risk analyses and training of our staff in all the countries we operate in. The measures we insert are constantly being revised, and our leaders take precedence as good role models,” says Faye-Petersen.

No longer a taboo

Corruption is a threat to rule of law, democracy and human rights. It undermines good governance and social justice. It distorts competition and hinders economic development. It poses a danger to the stability of democratic institutions and the moral grounds of society.

Previously, corruption was considered a taboo, something not to be spoken about. Today, however, it is one of the most talked about issues in the world. Berit Faye-Petersen says she is pleased with the attention the issue gets today. “Fortunately, I see that this issue is a recurring one on the agenda. Today, one has acknowledged that one must focus on corruption to succeed in combating the problem. But,” she says, “I wish that there was a bigger focus on the importance of conducting good prevention work.”

Front runner

We work in 30 countries and have 14,000 employees. Berit Faye-Petersen herself has many years’ experience in our organisation. She began her career in NRC as Country Director in Bosnia in 2001 and has since worked both abroad and at the head office in Oslo.

One of the first thing she did when she in 2014 started working as our organisation's first anti-corruption and investigation adviser, was to create a handbook on anti-corruption. In addition, she made various training materials for our staff and revised the internal investigation procedures.

“NRC was a front runner in adopting guidelines for anti-corruption and its investigation. My first task was to revise and update these guidelines, as well as ensure every suspicion of corruption was properly reported and handled.”

We cannot be naïve

In 2012, then-secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, said that 30 percent of aid vanishes in corruption. According to the Global Humanitarian Assistance report for 2017, aid totalled to an amount of 27.3 billion USD that year. 30 percent is 8.19 billion.

“That’s an enormous amount of money, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s a massive amount. However, the 30 percent also includes the bilateral aid to developing countries. In NRC we are present in the areas and largely implement the programs ourselves. Thus, we have much better control of everything that is going on.” Faye-Petersen pauses for a minute. “It’s important not to be naïve, and that we have reliable systems. Our advantage is that we have the resources needed to conduct trainings and can pounce on the slightest suspicion of a violation of our routines,” she adds. “We have a precautionary perspective in everything we do: From the recruitment of staff, to procurement, financial management, logistics and the actual aid distribution.”

Spreading the message

“NRC works in some of the most corrupt countries in the world. That must be a difficult starting point?”

“We have thousands of loyal, dedicated staff members who do their best every day. Moreover, the anti-corruption message is spread repeatedly. Everyone who works for and with us must understand that we define corruption as abuse of power for self or a group's undue advantage. Such a broad definition means that to us, corruption includes more than committing financial fraud,” Faye-Petersen explains.

“Do you have any concrete examples of challenges you meet in your work?”

“For example, we do not allow people who have not declared themselves biased,to be involved in the recruitment of or procurement from friends or family. In some areas of the world, it is common to recruit and trade with family and friends since they can be trusted. For some people, it is difficult to understand that we define this as corruption. We also have challenges with bribes. While bribing someone would be unthinkable in Norway, it is very common in many of the countries we work in,” Faye-Petersen says. “Therefore, it is important that we spread the message that this is considered corruption, while referring to the UN Convention Against Corruption, which most countries have signed or ratified,” she adds.

Recurring fraudulent activities

In 2017, NRC investigated 55 cases of suspected economical fraud and corruption. 31 cases were dropped or found to be unsubstantiated. In 18 of the cases it was concluded that some form of corruption had taken place.

Among other things, we had theft of cash, inflated prices on purchases, theft of assets, fictitious suppliers in tenders and illegal connections to water supplies in the camps.

According to Faye-Petersen, there are some types of fraud that recur - such as theft of diesel from NRC cars and generators, or cartel activity in tenders.

“When it comes to procurement, we must be vigilant, and therefore we have very tight procedures. However, cooperation on tender fraud is done in such a sophisticated way that it is difficult to uncover,” Faye-Petersen says.

“In 2017, the Central control unit in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA) published a report stating that several Norwegian organisations had to reimburse them [NMFA] amongst them NRC?”

“Yes, we have refunded money to the NMFA. The case you're referring to started with one of our country directors reacting because someone had ordered strikingly large quantities of office supplies. This resulted in an extensive investigation. We discovered that we had two disloyal employees who had been at it for a while. When more than one person is involved in fraud, it often takes us longer to uncover the corruption, and losses are often higher,” Faye-Petersen says. “However, considering what a huge organisation we are, we have had very few serious cases.”

Loses their jobs

Disloyal employees lose their jobs. That, in itself, works preventatively: One sees and understands that zero tolerance is exercised. “But,” explains Faye-Petersen, “there are various degrees of disciplinary action. The action taken, depends on what the employee has done and the current legislation in the country in which he or she worked.”

“Have you ever received threats because of the work you do?”

“Very rarely. But it does happen that persons who have been dismissed because of fraud, have created trouble afterwards. For example, by producing fake whistleblowing cases. They can be quite devious, as they are familiar with the organisation.”

NRC’s anti-corruption manager explains that an investigation is often initiated after someone blows the whistle or, usually, because we’ve discovered something suspicious through the organisation’s internal control procedures. In short: When something seems off, or when our procedures are not followed.

“When we initiate an investigation, it’s key that it is handled in a correct manner and according to our investigative routines. Such matters should be reported to me promptly, so that I can follow up on the individual case and also ensure that we protect the information responsibility that we have towards our donors,” she says.

Together against corruption

In Norway, the various aid organisations have come together to establish an anti-corruption forum.

“There, we share experiences and learn from each other. Such inter-agency collaborations are also extremely important in the countries where we work. A trend over the past year and a half is that we in NRC have managed to repay some of the funds we have lost in corruption, by having the perpetrators pay back the money. We also have several examples that we, through thorough internal control, have been able to expose planned corruption before it happened.” Faye-Petersen smiles, before she adds:

“And that is our goal.”