Corruption Archives - Page 2 of 2

February 26, 2011March 2, 2011

Africa Is in a New Era With so Many Success Stories to Tell

For too long, Africa has been defined just by war, corruption and poverty. It was so welcome to read “A fresh chapter is opening in Africa’s history” (Editorial). It is time the rest of the world recognised the amazing resilience shown by Africa.

The continent quickly recovered after the economic crisis. Growth is forecast at 5.3% this year and 5.5% in 2012, making it one of the world’s fastest-growing developing regions. Africa’s resilience was the result of years of hard work – a deep commitment to reform and economic stability over 15 years. Two-thirds of African economies brought in reforms during the crisis to make it easier for investors. Foreign direct investments in sub-Saharan Africa grew by 17% last year.

Africa still needs aid but it should be aid that targets real results – in education and health, with malaria an example. It should also be aid that leverages private investment and creates jobs.

Africa presents a market of 1 billion people whose potential buying power should make the continent an important contributor to global growth. Africa is coming of age in a complicated environment, marked by issues ranging from global imbalances to climate change. It must seize the opportunities to tell and sell its own success stories.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Managing director

The World Bank

Washington DC

[ad#Adsense-468×60]

February 9, 2011

West ‘Facilitates Corruption in Africa’ Says Top Economist

CNN) — Industrialized countries have been enabling corruption in Africa by providing crooked officials with a haven for their money, according to Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz.

The former World Bank chief economist, one of the few economists to foresee the global financial crisis, was among the speakers at this year’s Global Poverty Summit, held in Johannesburg.

Speaking to CNN’s Robyn Curnow, Stiglitz expressed optimism about Africa’s economic prospects, but he said there should be more discussion about undisclosed bank accounts in the West that are used to facilitate high-level fraud in Africa.

“The advanced industrial countries have some responsibility,” said Stiglitz. “One of the things that’s on a standard form is for corrupt dictators to steal money and put it in a bank account in an advanced industrial country.

“There’s been a lot of discussion in the G-20 about secret bank accounts as tax agents — there hasn’t been enough discussion of secret bank accounts as corruption facilitators.”

Stiglitz said corruption could be reduced by increasing scrutiny of corrupt governments, using mechanisms such as freedom of information acts and a free press.

But he added that the West also had a role to play.

“One of the countries that hosted the G-20 and talked all the time about tax corruption, that same country is a haven for corrupt money and refuses to repatriate money that has been stolen from Africa,” he said.

“Now, this seems to me something that ought to be on the agenda. There’s a relationship, there are people making money off of it, and we ought to stop that.

“We shouldn’t enable that corruption and we’re doing that in the West when we allow them to have their secret bank accounts.”

Stiglitz added that there was reason for optimism about economic growth in Africa, with changes to economic policies in recent years starting to bear fruit.

“There is an enormous amount of dynamism in Africa, so I think it’s a moment of real opportunity,” he said.

But he stressed the need for Africa to reverse what he called its “process of de-industrialization over the last 25 years.”

“One of the things that Africa has to do is realize it cannot just be a source of natural resources, that it has to start industrializing, producing agriculture services — it’s not just the old industry,” he said. “I think it’s actually a very good time. Wages are rising in Asia and people are asking, ‘Where can we start producing in a competitive way?’ I think Africa provides an example of one of the important areas.”

January 27, 2011

Germany Halts Payment to Malaria Fund Over Corruption Concerns

Germany has halted its annual payments of 200 million euros ($274 million) to the Global Fund Against AIDS, TB and Malaria due to concerns over allegations of corruption against the Fund.

Announcing suspension of the funds, German Development Minister Dirk Niebel said on Wednesday: “I take the allegations of corruption and breach of trust carried by media against the Global Fund very seriously, and I expect that the fund will promptly clear them up.”

Stressing that an investigation was urgently required into the allegations, Niebel indicated that he had halted all “further payments to the Fund until it is fully cleared up.”

With its annual contribution of 20 million euros, Germany is the third-largest donor to the U.N.-backed Fund that has an annual budget of more than $20 billion. The Fund is the single largest source for fighting AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria across the world.

The latest developments come after an international news agency raised allegations of misappropriation and corruption against the Fund. The news agency alleged in a report that funds might have been misappropriated in several countries where the Global Fund’s controls were poor.

Following the report, the Fund acknowledged that its internal investigations had revealed some minor misappropriation of funds in several cases. But the Fund insists that it has taken strict measures to tackle the problem in all identified cases.

According to the Fund, internal investigations and audits carried out in 33 of the 145 countries where the it has grants have unearthed $34 million in misappropriated or unsubstantiated funds.

The Fund acknowledged that the amount found to be misappropriated was a large enough figure by itself, but pointed out that it amounted to only 0.3 per cent of the $13 billion the Fund has distributed to countries so far.

by RTT Staff Writer

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

November 9, 2010November 9, 2010

Encouraging Leaders to Do the Right Thing, by Nicholas van Praag

"Spare the stick, spoil the child." That was the advice from proponents of the tough love approach to parenting that prevailed in Victorian times.

Plus ça change. Looking around the world today, encouraging leaders in fragile states to do the right thing, whatever that might be, is more about punishing them for erring in the performance of their governance duties than rewarding them for doing good.

There is a panoply of international sanctions to punish leaders who abuse human rights, undermine constitutionality or indulge in corruption. Some are regional, others global. Some are formal, others informal. Whatever their provenance or legal standing, the stick remains the instrument of choice.

Mechanisms to recognize or reward good leadership are few and far between. Yet leaders are human and, unless they are beyond redemption, they are more likely to respond to recognition and rewards than sanctions and reprimands.

The Nobel Peace Prize and the Ibrahim Prize are both strong incentives and could be emulated to acknowledge the contribution of leaders who consistently do well. Why not find ways, for example, to reward ministers who make a lasting impact on corruption or top brass in the military who reform the security sector peacefully?

Initiatives such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Board of the Natural Resource Charter might want to find ways to boost the standing of leaders in government, civil society, and the private sector who improve the transparency of resource revenues and expenditures.

International and regional organizations could use top jobs as incentives for national reformers. The United Nation's Department of Peacekeeping Operations vets senior appointments for past human rights abuses. Other multilateral organizations could follow suit and use recruitment to reward successful reformers while barring those who have violated international law.

Rewards are often carefully calibrated diplomatic gestures rather than signals of fulsome support. For example, we learned this week that President Obama has told Sudan that if it allows the referendum on the status of Southern Sudan to go ahead in January 2011, and then abides by the results, the United States will take Sudan off its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Realpolitik aside, if the carrot is to become mightier than the stick, we need to agree on what we can reasonably expect of leaders in countries scarred by violence and accept that it will take them a long time to show progress.

Without agreement on what is worthy of reward, we are unlikely to see much shift in the balance between recognition and sanctions. But then it took decades for British parents to stop beating their children.

Nicholas van Praag, World Development Report

October 20, 2010January 14, 2011

Deal or No Deal?

The Zimbabwe Football Association investigation has concluded that national team players had their elbows greased by an Asian betting syndicate in December 2009 to lose matches

The matches were played last year where Zimbabwe lost 3-0 to Thailand and 6-0 to Syria.

According to the report, money was sent from the betting syndicate to the ZIFA chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya.

A witness in the cases says “We were scored in the 44th minute but not by design”

“We were handsomely paid $1,000 [about £600] for losing. The money was paid at the airport as we were about to go home.”

The Zimbabwe nation football team is almost made up of locally-based players, unlike countries like Ghana and Nigeria who can boast of big cash players like Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel and Asamoah Gyan. So may be it no big deal. Is it?