African Corruption Essay Example for Free

African Corruption Essay This study intends to clearly show the extent to which Africa and Africans have been suffering from the ravages of corruption, fraud, and intentional mismanagement by their governments and their leaders, much to the disappointment and anger of the people. The impact of corruption on the lives of the people, the businesses, and the economy of any of the nations concerned has been studied by a number of authors, scholars, and worldwide institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF, and even donors (highly industrialized nations). Although Africa has a large share of the worlds raw material and mineral resources, African nations are by far the least developed and the poorest countries in the world. Robert Harris, in his book, Political Corruption In and Beyond the Nation State, (1990, p. 29,) introduced three themes. First, political corruption is an illegitimate extension of normal political activity. In trying to understand the central issue of corruption, one needs to understand the complex and intricate nature of corruption. If we ask, what is â€Å"corruption†? The American Heritage English Language Dictionary (Pickett, 2000) defines corruption as â€Å"the art or process of corruption, the state of being corrupt, decay, and rot.† As indicated above, corruption comes in many forms. In the least developed countries (LDC’s) such as Africa, all types of corruption are prevalent. The following brief case histories of these three companies will present the magnitude of the scandals, corruption, and deceit these companies perpetrated on the unsuspecting public and their business partners. Other countries of the world have similar problems of corruption, fraud, and mismanagement. From time to time, stories appear about the corruption trial of a government official, a banker, or corporate head in other parts of the world. Doing Business in Africa and Other Non-Industrialized Nations, the basic tenets of the guiding principles are that corruption, dishonesty, and unethical behavior among public officials represent serious threats to the basic principles and values of government, undermining public confidence in democracy and threatening to erode the rule of law. The aim of these guiding principles is to promote public trust in the integrity of officials within the public sector by preventing, detecting, and prosecuting or sanctioning official corruption and unlawful dishonest or unethical behavior. Monsanto Co.: Settled an SEC complaint in January alleging that the company funneled more than $700,000 in corrupt payments to Indonesian government officials between 1997 and 2002. ExonMobil, Chevron Texaco, Marathon Oil, Devon Energy, and Amerada Hess, as well as several other oil companies: These reportedly are involved in SEC investigations into bribes allegedly paid to government officials in Equatorial Guinea. Public perception of police corruption stems mainly from instances where the public has come face to face with the vice as they interact with police in their discharge of duty. My personal experience also left me with no doubt that police corruption in South Africa was daunting task for the new democratic government of South Africa. While police brutality in Kenya is much less compared to that of the apartheid South Africa, the police corruption in Kenya is much more widespread and open. Corruption in the police force takes various forms and in various degrees of sophistication. Corruption in Kenya and more particularly among the police has reached unprecedented levels. Thieves have been set free from police cells because of corruption. The ministry of public works: This is the second most corrupt institution in Kenya. Finding found that this is the Ministry that has the highest rent corruption in Kenya. A large population of the Kenyan people expressed disgust at the corruption in this ministry. The corruption at the ministry of public works is more sophisticated than meets the eye. It is also in charge of construction of government residential houses and offices. The ministry houses the largest number of government employed Engineers, professionals, and Architects. It is actually a key ministry in any government.   Millions of shillings are spent in purchasing goods and services for the government. There was no good will from the establishment to deal with cases of corruption. Where genuine outside companies have been awarded contracts, big bribes were paid to the committee before the award. In one case a contractor has given a job to put up some government circles. The author discovered that this was done just to get free money as penalties from the government. The poor jobs that we have seen on our roads are a result of corruption. This makes the land law in Kenya, one of the most complicated land systems in the world. The Crown Lands Ordinance (Cap. 280) passed in 1915 defined crown land as â€Å"All public land including all land occupied by the native tribes of the protectorate and all land reserved for the use of the members of any native tribe.† All the land rights of the natives were ignored. After all and without exception, African customs recognized land rights. African communities saw land as a gift of God to every individual. That has been the root cause of land problems in this country. Nowhere in Africa is land such expensive commodity as it is in Kenya. A Kenyan who has no land will always work hard to buy himself land. Land and Corruption in Africa The Ministry of Lands is one of the most corrupt institutions in this country. Land Cartels Land allocations, is the biggest single activity that goes on at the Lands office, Nairobi. Here, the people of Kenya will spend as much time and spend as much money, to ensure that they have been allocated land. Income tax department: African Revenue Authority is the main government agency for collecting all government revenue. No government can run on its own without taxes. Money collected from taxes is what the government uses to provide public services like Education, Health, Infrastructure, security and policing, a forestation, public service employment, defence and many others. (Transparency International Report, 2006) You cannot tax people so highly and yet fail to provide services. Over Kenya Shillings 250 billion taxes, (Transparency International Report, 2006), are collected annually by the Kenya Revenue Authority. The African revenue authority has some of the best professionals in the public service. Corruption at the African Revenue Authority is a matter of great concern. There is corruption in the organization both corporate and individual taxpayers. With the present economic situation most business people are stressed out and depressed. Research revealed that there is massive corruption in the import and export sector. Tax evasion is very high in this sector and the government loses millions of shillings through fraud and tax evasion. It was found that tax officers collude with importers and exporters to avoid tax and deny the government the badly needed revenue. This area has provided a good breeding ground for corruption in the income tax department. Officers in the Revenue Authority come across these businesses every day. The government is losing a lot of revenue by leaving these sectors out.

Difficulty In Making An Important Decision :: essays research papers

Difficulty In Making An Important Decision Assignment: Describe a particular time in your life when you had difficulty making an important decision. During the course of our lifetimes we make many significant and difficult choices that affect us. These choices affect our personal and professional lives. Therefore, we make these choices with much thought and care. One of the most difficult and important decisions I have made was changing careers. Changing careers at this stage of my life, mid-life, was very difficult. Preparation for my new career required me to resign my job. The former position was providing a major portion of my family's income and most of the medical benefits. Some means of earning a living while preparing for a new career was foremost on my mind during this stage. If I spent to much time and energy pursuing a job to provide a means for supporting my family while retraining, I might not do a sufficient job of retraining for a new career. Another difficulty equally as important as the the financial one was the possibility of failing at a new endeavor or not being able to find a new job. These possibilities made me feel uncomfortable and insecure. If I failed or could not find a new position, what would my family think of me? Failing at a new career would also cause me to lose confidence in myself. These concerns, failure and financial, and not finding a new job made this decision very difficult. The decision to choose a new career was an extremely important one. The sole function of a career is not just to provide a means to make a living; it should have a larger purpose. The work I was doing did little for others, and in fact, served only a small, special interest group. In addition to pursuing a meaningful career, a career should be satisfying, and make some

Adidas Sustainable Development Strategy Essay

The textile and the apparel industries face nowadays a lot of evolution due, first to macroeconomic consequences and then because of the growing eco-friendly influence. To understand the key challenges of the sustainable development in the textile and the apparel industries, we, first, need to get the whole picture of the situation. The global textile industry is getting through a struggling time for the global economy due to crisis. This situation increases the price volatility of raw materials and energy resources. We can also add-up to this trend, the rising labor cost that contributes to amplify the negative effects on the industry. This uncertainty in the marketplace leads to lack of projection for years to come. At a worldwide stage, the textile market knows different situations. Europe is facing a recession while North American market is struggling. This current trends leads to reduced worldwide sale perspective. In Asia, the situation is more complex. China is the major actor in the market. More and more, price rises in China due to a higher domestic demand and higher wages. See more: Distinguish between problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping Essay This economic trend creates opportunities for other Asian countries to become new sourcing targets (Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia). However, new countries doesn’t have necessary quality and quantity requirement, which put companies in a huge dilemma in 2012 and for years to come†¦ Concerning sustainable development in the textile and apparel industries, many challenges are expected. For years and years, consumers have wanted cheap and trendy clothes, no matter where they came, who produced it and the material composition of the purchase. Now, they have changed their mind in many aspects. Consumers expect more and more socially acceptable workplaces to employees in production. They want companies to focus on improving human being, which includes better work conditions and better salary. However, this desire is problematic and contradictory for the industry. Indeed, this change will imply higher price that only a minority of consumers are up to pay. Key actors on this market need also to be responsible and active in the society and towards communities. Apart from this, consumers also require that companies produce in environmentally friendly way, which represent the main key challenge. Consumers care more and more to let enough raw materials for future generations and avoid global over consumption. The Chemistry industry brings solution to replace these raw materials. However, it can’t replace every material: water, which is an essential factor for production of textile, energy (it concerns mainly non-sustainable sources, except solar and other sustainable energies) and raw materials (real organic cultivations are insignificant in the industry). However, instead of raw materials, regenerative raw materials are more and more used. There is line and hemp that are resistant and doesn’t need pesticides. However, it can be only use for particular textiles. Besides, we can find chemical fibers, which represent 60% of the current market. They are better than natural fibers but are dependent on petroleum. This problem is a bit compensated by the fact it can be recyclable in PET bottle for instance. Cotton represents only 38% of the market in volume and wool, 2%. For dyestuffing, Chemistry has also played a huge role. Now the synthetic process replace natural because it turns out to be more ecological and with a better quality. Moreover, we can also save resources like energy and chemicals by using sustainable development energies like solar, wind or hydroelectric energies. We have to consider fossil energy and try to replace them by renewable energies to avoid price pressure and volatility. Companies want also to develop environment-friendly production technologies for textile industry. Most of the time, Chemistry helps to save resources because they are less demanding in water for finishing and dyestuffs and in energy for washing. They clean fibers better, reduce amount of defective goods and preserve machines. However, huge tests and controls are required to avoid toxic and harmful component to spread into our daily life through our clothes Another key challenge for the industry is to develop the recycling economy. A model called 3R illustrates this targeted economy: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It follows this chain: â€Å"resources-products-consumer-renewable resources† to implement the closed-cycle logistics. Moreover, this cycle allows controlling the process of contamination in this cycle. The second-hand purchases can optimize purchases and sustainability by creating a new business out of the current one. Besides, improving quality of final can be seen as a key challenge. It prolongs life cycle and also improve reuse value. Eco-tax on new materials could be set up to allow development of material re-use technology and business. After seeing the global situation of the current market, actors that want to play a major role in the future have to turn these challenges and strains into opportunities to differentiate and bring new standards in the textile and apparel industries. What are the stakeholders’ expectations? Employees of the Group  The employees of Adidas have the expectation that we can expect from different workers. They expect to have good working conditions to properly conduct they everyday job. Thus, some flexible hours, good working environment, ergonomic machinery are some expectations that Adidas employees might have. Of course, the salaries needs to be fair and the possibility of career evolution should be interesting too. They would prefer a merit-based rewarding system and a fair policy. Then, working in an ethical company can make them proud to work for Adidas and avoid internal conflict of interest. Also, they expect to have the freedom of joining a work council or any other unions. Finally, having the guaranty to have their health and safety assured during their working hours, with proper social protection. All these aspects are employee’s expectations that can be encountered worldwide. Authorizes government, trade associations, shareholders, Board of Directors All those stakeholders have different expectations. The government aims to see their citizen rights preserved, the legislation respected and the economy supported. A government needs to be objective and act for the benefits of â€Å"its people†. Thus they can on one side wants to impose restrictions on companies to prevent abuses but also want to support them financially or administratively to attract them and push them to invest in their country, and supporting the economy. The trade associations expect Adidas to respect international treaties on trade and to act in respect of the International regulations. On the other side, board of directors wants to see Adidas following the strategy they established to be sustainable. They want the company to be profitable but in a sustainable way. The board of directors wants the company have a better image and increase its sustainable development reputation. Finally Shareholders expect the company to be profitable and to have a direct result from its sustainable development strategy. They want Adidas to be sustainably profitable. Business partners unions, suppliers, service providers Business partners unions wants Adidas to respect the labor rights for the workers. They want working conditions to be assured and health & safety policy respected. They expect Adidas to secure the job of employees and avoid economic firing. The suppliers expect Adidas to respect their contract and fulfill their contractual obligations toward sustainable development. Also, they want Adidas to have fair practices and have equitable deals with them. On their own sides, service providers also wants Adidas to have fair practices and to involve them in their sustainable strategy by training them and providing them the means to be real partners. Workers in our suppliers’ factories These stakeholders are those who have the highest expectations toward Adidas. They expect Adidas to treat them equitably and to have fair practices with them. They want to have the same working conditions and the same rights than the Adidas employees. They want to have a decent wages, without child labor, with the acceptable health and safety benefits. They want Adidas to train them and to help them to evolve without remaining simple second-hand workers. They want to be fully integrated in the sustainable strategy of Adidas and in the future of the company. Opinion-formers journalists, community members, special interest groups Opinion formers such as journalists, expect Adidas to respect its engagement toward sustainable development. They want to be assured that the sustainable strategy of the company is a real commitment and not a simple â€Å"faire-valoir†. Community members on their own side, expect Adidas to respect their community and its environment but also to serve its interest. They want Adidas to offer them employment, to support education and to help the community to benefit from Adidas activities. Special interest group will push Adidas to respect their own interest. For instance, Greenpeace will push Adidas to respect environment, â€Å"SOS racisme† will expect Adidas to have non-discriminatory human resource policy, etc. Customers: Professional sports people, distributors, retailers, consumer Customers are the final people to satisfy. They are lat but not least. Customers expect Adidas to have fair prices, to respect their engagement in terms of sustainable development while maintaining the quality of their product. They also expect that the new sustainable development strategy will not impact their buying power by tremendously increase the price of Adidas products. Sports people want to be sure that the various Adidas products are ethical, with low impact on the environment and that are made by factories that respect sustainable working conditions. Distributors and retailers want Adidas to respect its positioning and identity but expect that Adidas will continuously improve its sustainable development policy. How does the company meet the challenges of the industry? Being a global business: This involves a strong and worldwide suppliers network. To be sure that suppliers rules are respectful of Adidas engagement, Adidas is fully transparent on its activities.  « We seek to be open about our operations, for example, by disclosing our global factory list to the public or submitting our global supplier compliance programme to evaluation and accreditation by the fair Labor Association. (Adidas,5) Beyond all contractual regulations that we will see below, transparency is an essential way to enable external organizations, such as the Fair Labor Association, to check the working conditions in Adidas suppliers. However, there is always information’s that kept secrets and not disclosed. It is important to keep a strong control on it. Being competitive: According to Adidas, the response to this challenge is: not at any price. â€Å"The adidas group Workplace Standards are fundamental to our relationships with our suppliers and are contractual obligations. While we have our own team that assesses how well our suppliers are complying with our supply chain code, we also work with external monitors to complement our measures. † (adidas, 5) Adidas apply strict rules and regulations that are contractually based in order to respect the company regulations on health, safety, labour rights and environmental conditions. On all these aspects, Adidas provides training and detailed guidelines to its suppliers. It has also involved a strong information system such as Fair Factory Clearinghouse platform, to monitor the conduct of its supplier. Apparently Adidas has done everything possible in this sector. However, it is essential to keep a strong control on supplier to avoid some â€Å"under-the-radar† issues such as the ones in Indonesia: (http://www. peuples-solidaires. org/suite317-indonesie-adidas/). Being environmentally responsible: Adidas is fully engaged in reducing its footprint. Adidas aims to: Save energy and reduce carbon emissions, save water, reduce the use of raw materials, using more environmentally friendly materials, reduce waste, reduce toxicity, for example through using less toxic chemicals and through fforts to reduce the pollutants in waste water at supplier factories, improve the environmental footprint of raw materials, improve the environmental footprint of products, manage supplier performance through auditing, measuring and reporting against key performance indicators, use management systems to drive continuous improvement (Adidas, 9). Adidas is acting in every step of its value chain and also by controlling its suppliers. However, this is useless if the distributors are not committed. For example distributing an eco-friendly product by using trucks that will strongly pollutes during the transportation is not coherent. Adidas is so powerful that it can make pressure on distributors to be committed in its environmental program. Being an employer of choice: This objective passes through managing people in a sustainable way. Adidas has developed an entire Human Resources Strategy based on three pillars: â€Å"create a working environment that stimulates team spirit, passion and engagement, instill a performance culture based upon strong leadership, be an employer of choice†(Adidas, 5). To do so, Adidas has developed a performance-based rewarding system throughout bonus program, profit sharing and additional compensation components. Moreover the training of employees is emphasized with different talent management programs (Adidas, 59). This enables people to enhance their perspectives. The whole working environment is made to be attractive with health and safety policy, respect of labor rights and liberty to join work council. Nonetheless, in the 2012 sustainable report, Adidas focus on Germany and USA. There are few words on the working environment offshore. We are not sure that those conditions are respected worldwide as it was in Indonesia. Moreover if the rewarding system is performance-based, we do not know anything about the career evolution system.

The Genesis Of Future Conflict - 940 Words

Controversy surrounds the existence of the western way of war theme and even plants the seed of doubt if it did occur. In Parker’s The Cambridge History of Warfare, Parker suggests the western way of war can be abridged into five characteristics: technology, discipline, aggressive military action, finance, and innovation. Parker proposes that the western way of war facets significantly altered the preparation for battle and the outcomes on the battlefield. A prime example is the great Napoleon Bonaparte during his conquest to dominate the continent of Europe. The characteristics of the western way of war that are best characterized during the Napoleon era are discipline, aggressive military tradition, and innovation. The purpose of this essay is to argue that these three aspects were to become the genesis of future conflict in post-Napoleon era. The French army was not only promoted by the nationalism ideology, but also by discipline. Before the French Revolution, Soldiers at the time were viewed as the dredger of society. Soldiers within Fredrick the Great’s armies did not have loyalty. For example, Fredrick would send out troops for resources and his Soldiers often did not return; whereas Napoleon’s troops would gather resources from the land and return. Before the Seven Year’s War, the army was without enthusiasm and distinction, which lead to defeats. 2 Napoleon employed various tactics aimed at physiology warfare with his opposition. Napoleon gave his enemies theShow MoreRelatedCapital Punish Relating to The Old Testament Essay1430 Words   |  6 Pages Some Christians feel that the Bible has spoken to the conflict, but many believe that the New Testament replaces the Old Testament law. Skimming through the Old Testament you can find many cases in which God orders the use of capital punishment, with the acts of God Himself. 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