Difference between revisions of "L'argent du carburant (Sub-Saharan Africa)"

Instances of ''l'argent du carburant'' may be overtly corrupt in nature: for instance, when a customs official is inspected by colleagues from the internal audit service, the latter may demand the ‘money for the fuel’ (that he has consumed to come to the audited staff) to draw up a favourable report. But more often the term refers to cases in which there is no real material exchange or extortion. Rather, ''l'argent du carburant'' serves more as a goodwill gesture to facilitate smooth long-term working relations between the parties. In a customs office, forwarding agents who present declarations regularly give ''l'argent du carburant'' after the declaration has been processed by the customs officer, without a fraud having been concealed or the processing sped up. Declarations are allotted to inspectors automatically and at random, so this gift remains ‘personal’. The sums are relatively small compared to the amounts of duties and taxes paid, and are recorded as ‘miscellaneous expenditure’ on invoices the forwarding agents submit to their clients. When asked how much they give, some forwarding agents refer to a very elaborate scale according to the nature of the goods passing through customs – a sign of the institutionalisation of this type of payment.

Instances of ''l'argent du carburant'' may be overtly corrupt in nature: for instance, when a customs official is inspected by colleagues from the internal audit service, the latter may demand the ‘money for the fuel’ (that he has consumed to come to the audited staff) to draw up a favourable report. But more often the term refers to cases in which there is no real material exchange or extortion. Rather, ''l'argent du carburant'' serves more as a goodwill gesture to facilitate smooth long-term working relations between the parties. In a customs office, forwarding agents who present declarations regularly give ''l'argent du carburant'' after the declaration has been processed by the customs officer, without a fraud having been concealed or the processing sped up. Declarations are allotted to inspectors automatically and at random, so this gift remains ‘personal’. The sums are relatively small compared to the amounts of duties and taxes paid, and are recorded as ‘miscellaneous expenditure’ on invoices the forwarding agents submit to their clients. When asked how much they give, some forwarding agents refer to a very elaborate scale according to the nature of the goods passing through customs – a sign of the institutionalisation of this type of payment.

[[File: 2 4 L'argentducarburant.JPG|400px|thumb|left |‘Photograph by Thomas Cantens.’ Source: Author]]

[[File: 2 4 L'argentducarburant.JPG|400px|thumb|left |‘Photograph by Thomas Cantens.’ Source: Author]]

In principle, service users who do not give ''l'argent du carburant'' do not suffer any adverse effects other than a reputation for stinginess. In fieldwork conducted by the author in Cameroon, no respondent stated that a person who had not handed money over had been discriminated against on subsequent occasions. The forwarding agents interviewed were too verbose to fail to mention any penalties they would have incurred had they not offered such payments.  ''L'argent du carburant'' is thus more of a custom than a source of corruption.

In principle, service users who do not give ''l'argent du carburant'' do not suffer any adverse effects other than a reputation for stinginess. In fieldwork conducted by the author in Cameroon, no respondent stated that a person who had not handed money over had been discriminated against on subsequent occasions. The forwarding agents interviewed were too verbose to fail to mention any penalties they would have incurred had they not offered such payments.  ''L'argent du carburant'' is thus more of a custom than a source of corruption.

If a state institution detects an informal threat to its power that it is unable to eliminate, then it will create or co-opt unofficial practices to try and regain some degree of control. The ‘protocol’ is an example of this – given that the customs authority lacks the means to eliminate the practice of ''l'argent du carburant'', it standardises it and regains some degree of control over it in the form of the ‘protocol’. Such State pragmatism is a kind of ‘reason of State’. In this respect, addressing corruption by forcing actors to live up to idealised, abstract rules that are not recognised as legitimate precisely because they are so far removed from everyday practice is not realistic.

If a state institution detects an informal threat to its power that it is unable to eliminate, then it will create or co-opt unofficial practices to try and regain some degree of control. The ‘protocol’ is an example of this – given that the customs authority lacks the means to eliminate the practice of ''l'argent du carburant'', it standardises it and regains some degree of control over it in the form of the ‘protocol’. Such State pragmatism is a kind of ‘reason of State’. In this respect, addressing corruption by forcing actors to live up to idealised, abstract rules that are not recognised as legitimate precisely because they are so far removed from everyday practice is not realistic.