Reading, Writing, And Compliance

A retired supreme court justice in Uganda has proposed anti-corruption training for citizens, starting with the school kids.

Professor George Kanyeihamba's open letter to President Yoweri Museveni this week said the country's Anti-Corruption Act of 2009 should be 'compulsory reading for all Ugandans.' That statute replaced a weaker 1970 law and strengthened the government's hand.

'Even if only half of [of the new law] were to be enforced,' Professor Kanyeihambahe said, 'Uganda would be on its way to eliminating corruption altogether.'

Uganda ranked 143 on the Corruption Perceptions Index, tied with Nigeria and Russia, among others. This year it fell to 123 on the World Bank's Doing Business Index, which measures red tape. Per capita gross national income for Uganda's thirty-four million people is US$490. The top-ranked country on the Doing Business Index is Singapore. Its per capita GNI is US$40,920.

Professor Kanyeihambahe said anyone in Uganda seeking a civil service job should know the definitions of corruption and embezzlement and understand the harsh penalties for those offenses.

The Year Of The Busy Dragons

It's Chinese New Year next week, when people in Hong Kong and Singapore take a few days off from the pursuit of making money.

The 2012 index of economic freedom ranked those countries first and second respectively.

About Hong Kong it said: 'There is little tolerance for corruption.'

It noted Singapore's 'effective enforcement of anti-corruption laws.'

On the latest corruption perceptions index, Singapore and Hong Kong both ranked better than Germany, the U.K., and the United States.

Hong Kong and Singapore may not have Western-style democracy. But freedom? Yes, they have it.

People oppressed by corruption can't be economically free. And usually not free in other ways. Corruption keeps them poor, scared, and politically weak. And often unhealthy and uneducated.

But Deroy Murdock showed how economic freedom works. In a great article about Hong Kong for the National Review, he said, 'First and foremost, Hong Kong is the Vatican of economic liberty.'

Unemployment is just 3.2 percent here (versus 8.5 percent in the U.S.), and it shows. Around the clock, “Hong Kong people” (as they call themselves) buy, sell, produce, and deliver. Everyone seems to be running somewhere. Workers rush handtrucks in every direction, laden with raw materials, finished goods, and sometimes just Styrofoam boxes.

In Singapore too, everyone who wants work has plenty of it. The busyness shocks first-time visitors from the West. Yet people in both Hong Kong and Singapore have a longer life expectancy than Americans. And they look and sound happy.

Economic dynamism, as Murdock said, has a special look.

That's why good leaders -- not necessarily the most popular or most creative, but the really good ones -- won't tolerate corruption. It interferes with true economic freedom.

POTUS Walks ASEAN's Mean Streets

President Obama meets tomorrow on Bali, Indonesia with the heads of state from ASEAN -- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

ASEAN hasn't been effective in spreading free trade and investment across the region. A big obstacle is corruption. Although the group includes Singapore, ranked as the least corrupt country in the world on the CPI, it also includes some of the planet's most corrupt nations.

Even with Singapore, the average CPI rank for ASEAN's ten members is 101, dragged down by Cambodia (154), Laos (154), and Myanmar (176), which managed to beat only Somalia. 

On the President's agenda in Bali will be 'improving economic integration and addressing security challenges in the region.' Both start with fighting corruption.

Here are the ASEAN countries in order of their CPI ranking:

Singapore (1)

Brunei  (38)

Malaysia (56)

Thailand (78)

Indonesia (110)

Vietnam (116)

Philippines (134)

Cambodia (154)

Laos (154)

Myanmar (176)

From Singapore (Yes, Singapore), A Corruption Story

It's not often -- every 16 years or so -- that we have something big to report from Singapore. That's why the tiny Southeast Asian nation (along with New Zealand and Denmark) is ranked by TI as the least corrupt country on earth.

But Bloomberg's Ann Koh and Andrea Tan reported last week on the biggest case of public fraud in Singapore since 1995.

It wasn't about bribery but dipping into the public till.

'Koh Seah Wee was sentenced to 22 years in jail and Lim Chai Meng to 15 years for their roles in cheating Singapore government agencies of S$12.5 million ($10 million),' Bloomberg said.

The former bureaucrats from the Singapore Land Authority did a lousy job of covering their tracks. They bought apartments and cars, including a $1.25 million Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV and a Ferrari F430.

The sentencing judge said buying the limited-edition Lamborghini was a 'rather egoistic act.”

There was another big case in 1995, Bloomberg said. 'Choy Hon Tim, a deputy chief executive at the Public Utilities Board, was jailed for 14 years for taking S$13.9 million in kickbacks in Singapore’s [then] largest public sector graft case. Choy was released in 2005 for good behavior.'

Compliance Training As Foreign Aid

Eighteen senior government officials from Afghanistan will receive anti-corruption training in Singapore through an international aid package.

A report last week by Channel News Asia said the week-long training program is part of a $1 million technical assistance package that Singapore pledged at the International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan.

The training seminar will be hosted by the Singapore Civil Service College. It will include visits to Singapore's Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau and Supreme Court. Two professors from Japan's Meiji University will also be on the faculty.

We've said before that foreign aid can cause corruption, mainly by helping corrupt regimes stay in power. And because corrupt regimes are the most unstable, aid also fuels civil unrest. But aid in the form of anti-corruption training can create real change.

Singapore is well qualified to help Afghanistan's civil servants fight corruption. It ranked at the top of the latest Corruption Perceptions Index, joining Denmark and New Zealand as the least corrupt countries on earth. Afghanistan ranks just two spots from the bottom, at 176.

Singapore's transfer of technical assistance to fight corruption makes loads of sense. Let's hope the idea spreads beyond Kabul.