Openness about corruption - is anti-corruption

In 2007 DanChurchAid experienced all Non-governmentorganisations’ night mare. An employee had conspired with relatives and managed to embezzle approximately USD 76.000 from DanChurch-Aid’s programme in Democratic Republic of Congo. The two parts inflated the prices for seeds – a so-called kickback arrangement. In this way both parts illegally benefitted from DanChurchAid’s funds – funds that should have reached beneficiaries in a country where the needs are substantial.

Normally a story like this would not reach an organisation's or company’s website. But DanChurchAid choose another approach – a video produced in Congo tells openly and honestly about the kick-back incident. And in 2008 DanChurchAid took a rather controversial decision: to publish all cases of corruption on our website – reports from the last five years can now be found at www.danchurchaid.org/anti-corruption.

Legitimacy

Why tell openly about unsuccessful stories? Because transparency and accountability are among DanChurchAid’s core values, and because we have to acknowledge that operating in countries ranking low on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index involves a risk of facing corruption. Openness about corruption is acknowledging that corruption is a problem, a problem that we want to address, handle and change.
In our communication about corruption, we emphasise what lessons we have learnt from the incidents, what measures we have taken to avoid similar situations in the future, and what consequences the incidents have had. In this way, we do not only communicate about corruption but more importantly about anti-corruption. This obviously gives us an opportunity to tell about our success in relation to our fiascos. We introduce a constructive view on the otherwise very harming cases, we tell our own and honest version of the story.
Reputation and legitimacy are keys for all organisations' and companies' survival and success. Hanging out to dry in the media is very costly in terms of both reputation and finance. People who claim to be successful all the time are found untrustworthy. The same applies to organisations as management research has shown [1]. Fomburn and Rindova talk about the „expressive organisation” that faces crisis openly and proactively – in other words that admits failures and handles them honestly. These organisations are said to overcome crisis better or even avoiding crisis.

Stakeholder’s reactions

DanChurchAid's aim is to be open to all stakeholders who rank from the Danish population to the Congolese population (those who benefit from the organisations’s projects), from big institutional donors of aid to volunteers selling second-hand clothes in small shops around Denmark. How would these very different stakeholders react to a story like the one on Congo? Let us have a close look at our experiences and considerations in relation to different stakeholders.

Institutional Donors: All our back donors expect us to tell them promptly and openly about substantial suspicion of corruption (our main donor Danida specifies that an orientation has to take place within 48 hours). So to them openness about corruption is not in question, but simply a requirement.

Private Donors: We asked ourselves if they would loose confidence in our ability to help those in need around the world and simply stop funding us? It is difficult to assess this. But according to indications that we received, openness about corruption is regarded as a strong positive signal. One private donor noted: „Corruption is widespread in the countries where you work, so why should you be the ONLY organisation avoiding corruption? Talking openly about corruption is an acknowledgement of the problem and also an indication that you take it seriously”.

Media: Proactive communication has so far shown to satisfy the media in their search for scandals and breaking news. Critical media acknowledged our proactivity with the words: „Impressive work”.

Sister agencies: Many Non-government organisations are in anti-corruption work and find DanChurchAid’s initiative brave and a good example of communication. A colleague in a sister agency noted „Thank you for your openness on this subject [corruption] and the way you share it on your website. I found it by far the best example of an anti-corruption policy for our type of organizations.”

How is it done, and which are the limits?

Transparency in cases of corruption is only possible if it is based on a reliable system of registration, handling and investigation
into corruption or suspicion of corruption. Reporting and follow-up have to be stringent. In DanChurchAid the set-up that makes the transparency possible and serious consists of an anti-corruption policy and a complaint mechanism (whistle blower system).
And just in order to ease the worried reader – we never publish cases where personal safety and security is at risk, and we do not mention names of employees.
We all like to tell about our successes, achievements and results. It is easy to be transparent in telling these successful stories. In Congo DanChurchAid experienced the opposite, but still told openly about it. In the short term the openness might have damaged our reputation, but in the long term we are sure that honesty and transparency will help us fight corruption, even on a level that reaches beyond DanChurchAid.

About DanChurchAid

- Annual turn over 56.400.000 Euro, funding from EU, Danish Government, Danish population
- One of the five biggest Non-Government Organisations in Denmark
- Presence in 17 countries
- 317 employees worldwide (+ many volunteers)
- Working through local partner organisations Development and relief (focus: food security, HIV/AIDS, political space, disaster preparedness, mine clearance

Maja Gram is anti-corruption and financial coordinator of DanChurchAid in Copenhagen.

[1] C.I. Fomburn, V.P. Rindova (2000): The road to transparency: Reputation management, in: M. Schultz, M.J. Hatch: The expressive
organisation. OUP

Dieser Artikel ist im Scheinwerfer 46 (S. 9) vom Februar 2010 erschienen.