It seems that whenever the subject of delivering some serious financial help to Africa arises, the issue of corruption comes up. It was the central point in a June speech by Paul Wolfowitz, the chief architect of the Iraq war, now head of the World Bank.

He cast corruption as a ''disease,'' supporting the view by many that African countries have a moral flaw that prevents them from using such economic assistance productively and, consequently, has been the main barrier to the continent's development. The corollary seems to be that no amount of money will resolve Africa's problems until you eliminate corruption.

This is a naive old wag, promoted by Europeans, Americans and Africans alike. But it belies the fact that corruption exists in every country in the world, has never been eliminated anywhere, and will never be eliminated as long as there are human beings handling money and other forms of power.

Corruption comes in many forms and has a different in history in many countries. In Africa and in many other post-colonial countries, it comes, in the first place, from the marriage between the culture of chieftaincy and the colonial administrative structure. In short, tribal chiefs and others of authority designated by the colonial government had the power to regulate access to that authority. Thus, the payment of bribes became a way for people of substance to gain access in a system that has been in place for hundreds of years and is pervasive. I once had to pay ''dash'' to get my luggage transferred from one plane to another by an airport official in an African country.

Secondly, it comes from limited resources, the lack of financial institutions and expertise in management to assure the transparent and efficient handling of large sums of money in a style to which Western financial managers are accustomed. This has been a circular problem. Like anyone in poverty, African leaders misappropriate foreign economic assistance because of the pressure of many competing human crises in their countries and the lack of trained personnel to effectively manage resources. And the lack of a sufficient flow of funds and skilled manpower fuels this problem.

The naive part is that many expect African leaders to simply adopt a new moral posture and eliminate corruption when the source of the problem lies in Western interests. The possession of political and economic power over Africans has historically given Europeans and Americans substantial control to regulate corruption to serve their own political interests.

From this vantage point, they oversaw a long line of ''chiefs'' such as Mobutu Sese Seko in the Congo, Idi Amin in Uganda, Papa Doc Duvalier in Haiti, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida in Nigeria and others, who were permitted to systematically transfer billions of dollars of cash from many Western sources into private banks in the West. This was permitted as long as they were faithful to anti-communism, delivered a steady stream of coveted minerals, or were safe for Western firms. If they didn't, they were either assassinated, removed from office or otherwise neutralized. That’s what they are trying now to do with Robert Mugabe head of Zimbabwe.

The even more corrupt fact is that Western leaders feign a lack of complicity in this process. Some African countries have leaders with a great moral sensibility, an improving civil service and representative political systems, such as South Africa, Nigeria, Botswana, Tanzania, Uganda and others. But poverty and political interference from Western states in African politics will continue to promote a level of corruption, and the latter fact will continue to escape the scrutiny of the press that it deserves.

Corruption in the West was combated early in the 20th century by the installation of a professional civil service, educational systems that contributed expertise to construct efficient financial systems, and a political system that held government accountable. But if corruption is the use of a position of trust for dishonest gain, then it is still rampant in Western countries including the United States. Witness the recent spate of corporate scandals featuring Enron, WorldCom, KPMG tax shelter fraud, Time Warner security fraud, Martha Stewart fraud and etc.

And the president of the United States sits over one of the biggest financial corruption schemes in Iraq. A recent report by Stuart Bowen, Pentagon Inspector General, found hundreds of millions of dollars missing or not properly accounted for, companies such as Haliburton making suspect claims to the Pentagon for hundreds of millions more, and the U. S. Occupation Authority in Iraq missing hundreds of millions more in its administration of $20 billion in Iraq oil sales.

So we should put corruption in perspective and, yes, make all countries accountable. But don't use it as an excuse not to help Africa.

Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar, director of the African American Leadership Institute in the Academy of Leadership and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland-College Park. He is the author of White Nationalism, Black Interests (Wayne State University Press) and, more recently, “Freedom is Not Enough” (Rowman and Littlefield).