The President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, provided a broader definition of corruption, extending it beyond the mere act of embezzling public funds. She emphasized that corruption can also manifest as a failure to carry out one’s responsibilities. Drawing from her personal experiences, she recounted incidents where office staff, such as messengers, would ignore her presence unless she was accompanied by a police orderly.
She described situations where people in public offices often expect informal payments or favors before providing assistance, highlighting how such practices are deeply ingrained in daily interactions and reflect a more subtle form of corruption. This, she argued, reflects a cultural issue in how services are rendered and a failure to uphold ethical standards in public service.
She said in a live coverage by Symfoni, “Corruption is not only about peddling money. People believe that, you know, stealing government money is what constitutes corruption. I dare to say that corruption is failing to do what you ought to do. If you walk into an office and you meet a messenger sitting on his table and looking at you—and I’ve experienced that—they will look at you eyeball to eyeball, they will not say anything to you.
Sometimes, if I’m in an office with a police orderly, the messenger can say, ‘Oh, officer, welcome, please sit down,’ while I’ll be standing up and looking at them. I have experienced that several times. Then you start begging, ‘Please, I want to see if there is a way you can see now,’ you know, it’s not just like that. Or when you go to an office and you come out, you know, they expect that you should put your hands in your pocket.”
Peoplesmind
