Corruption in Yemen is driving the country to a real disaster as about 60 percent of the General Budget is misused, local and international anti-corruption experts have said.
Amid ineffective efforts to tackle this cancer undermining the poorest Arab state, a disaster has become inevitable, a Yemeni economist affirms.
Participating in writing an evaluation about corruption in Yemen in 2006 for the USAID, Abdul Ghani Al-Eryani said diesel trafficking costs the government as much as twice as the country's budgets for the health and education sectors, more than one billion dollars.
The public funds are misused by corrupt senior officials, fueling, beside economic turmoil, tribal rebellions and the rage of separatists as well as helping Al-Qaeda extremists to tighten their grip in Yemen.
A westerner diplomat, who asked not to be named, suggested that Yemen's worsening situation is a direct result of corruption, with the Yemeni people thinking about inequality.
For his part, a WB expert said corruption is very serious in Yemen, saying, for example, week salaries are a key reason for bribes by junior officials, while senior officials receive much more than these state employees.
Arun Arya says all trials over corruption scandals seem like well-studied plays, even suspected corrupt officials escaped charges against them through bribes and corruption.
Yemen signed with the UN in 2005 an agreement committing it to fight corruption through establishing an independent anti-corruption authority. And despite the authority was established in 2007, all efforts exerted to tackle corruption remain ineffective and no progress seen on the matter.
Anyway, corruption in Yemen comes due to the lack of wise governance.