Some Observations on Financial Abuse at the Local Level

Abstract

The title of this paper is a piece of verbatim advice given by the chairman of a selection committee to a successful job applicant. The opening quotation comes from a member of a co-operative executive committee, an immediate reaction to a fieldworker's preliminary inquiries regarding missing money in the cooperative. Taken together, these quotable field notes illustrate one of the many paradoxes of third world development. On the one hand, literacy is an essential skill in financial administration, and numeracy is even more important. On the other hand, precisely because these skills are in short supply and are not easily controlled, especially in rural areas, they are regarded with suspicion, for it is the literate, numerate individual who may use precisely these skills to defraud less educated fellows.