March 23, 2007:
The peacekeeping efforts in Iraq
and Afghanistan have placed great emphasis on reconstruction. That, not
surprisingly, resulted in a lot of corruption. Now, prosecutors in countries
where the peacekeepers came from are finding more and more peacekeepers who were
into the corruption as much as the local. Recently, Finnish and American police
uncovered reservists and active duty troops who had obtained payoffs from
suppliers during reconstruction efforts overseas. It was hoped that troops from
more affluent nations would be more resistant to the corrupt business practices
so common in the Middle East and Afghanistan. However, it was that discovered,
in some cases, that it was the Western troops who instigated the payoffs.
Mostly, however, it was just the locals doing business the only way they knew
it.
Corruption was a known problem in both countries,
and NATO and U.S. peacekeepers were given training and advice on how to deal
with it. The preferred solution was to have Western troops or officials handle
the disbursement of money, but there were too many projects, and too many
people involved. Lots money got into the hands of locals, and from there lots
of that money disappeared. Iraqis and Afghans also had an advantage, when it
came to stealing aids money, over their Western minders. The locals paid no taxes,
often had no bank accounts and, in general, no paper trail. Not the same with
Westerners, who have to worry about laundering illegal payments. In the West,
there are too many financial records, and people auditing things, for large
amounts of cash to easily go unnoticed.
This paper trail problem has apparently kept many
Western peacekeepers honest, or at least more honest than they would otherwise
be. But officials from less affluent, and less scrutinized, parts of the world,
are, not surprisingly, more likely to make deals with corrupt officials on
reconstruction projects. One of the benefits of poverty, is the lack of a paper
trail.
The UN has struggled with this problems for years,
as have NGOs (who deliver most of the relief aid in many parts of the world.)
No one can even come up with comprehensive numbers on how great the corruption
damage is. After all, the crooks don't want to advertise their guilt. But as
auditing efforts increase, a lot more guilt is being uncovered. Historians have
begun to adjust their studies of reconstruction and relief efforts, to take
into account the enormous amounts of money that never gets to the people that
need it the most. And as the recent indictments in Western nations
demonstrates, no one is immune from the temptations.