Corruption in Chad

François Tombalbaye was the first President of Chad, his regime has been described as marked by authoritarianism, extreme corruption, and favoritism.[7][8] Corruption in form of tax collection abuse was one of the main causes of the Mubi Uprising, a series of riots which started the Chadian Civil War.[9]

Idriss Déby, an incumbent President of Chad has been accused of cronyism and tribalism.[3] Chadian opposition leaders and Human Rights Watch have accused Déby of electoral fraud in multiple elections where he and his party have won by a landslide.[10] During the Déby's presidency, in 2005, Chad was ranked the most corrupt country in the world (tied with Bangladesh).[11]

According to the Human Rights Report by the US Department of State Chad’s judicial system is heavily influenced by the government, causing the government officials to enjoy impunity. Judges who try to uphold independence face harassment and in some cases dismissal.[12] Businesses reported that they have often payed bribes to influence judicial decisions.[13] Ordinary civilians have low trust in their country's judicial system and they try avoid it.[14]

According to the Human Rights Report by the US Department of State corruption is largely present in both military and the police of Chad. Security forces often engage in petty corruption, violence, and extortion, which usually goes unpunished. Multiple cases of Judiciary Police not enforcing court orders against military personnel and members of their own ethnic group have been reported.[12] There are also reports of policemen committing street crimes and unlawfully arresting people, usually foreign tourists.[15]

In 2013, an anti-corruption crackdown was conducted in the police force. The crackdown uncovered illegal promotion and recruitment practices, lack of adequate training, favoritism and other corrupt activities. Two ministers were dismissed after the crackdown.[15]

Corruption in public services of Chad is characterized by nepotism and bribery. Bribery is common in public services due low salaries of civil servants.[15] Public works conducted by the government have been criticized by international organizations for lacking transparency and involving high-levels of corruption.[16]

Chad become an oil producer in 2003. In order to avoid resource curse and corruption, elaborate plans sponsored by World Bank were made. This plan ensured transparency in payments, as well as that 80% of money from oil exports would be spent on five priority development sectors, two most important of these being: education and healthcare. However money started getting diverted towards the military even before the civil war broke out. In 2006 when the civil war escalated, Chad abandoned previous economic plans sponsored by World Bank and added "national security" as priority development sector, money from this sector was used to improve the military. During the civil war, more than 600 million dollars were used to buy fighter jets, attack helicopters, and armored personnel carriers.[17] In 2005, an investigation uncovered money wastes, such as computers and printers being bought at inflated prices and various construction projects being payed for but never getting completed.[18] According to Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the lack of transparency in infrastructure projects funded by money from oil sector and the fact that there is no record keeping system to monitor flow of money from the oil sector represents significant risk corruption.[19]

Since 2014, protests against corruption and authoritarianism of current president Déby have been held in N'Djamena. Protests so far have had no success.[21]