Patrick Smith
BBC News
January 5, 2006

Corruption deals in Africa are getting bigger. The crooks are getting smarter and doing ever greater damage to Africa’s economies – sucking out resources meant for health, education and clean water.

Unlike their Asian counterparts, Africa’s robber-barons prefer to take their booty to Europe or the United States, far from prying eyes. It’s a system run by an international network of criminals, involving corrupt bankers laundering money, lawyers and accountants setting up “front companies” and trusts to collect bribes, contract-hungry company directors, local middlemen in Africa and the corrupt officials in African governments. After announcing in 2002 that Africa was losing $150bn a year to corruption, the African Union drew up a convention to outlaw bribe-taking and bribe-giving. So is corruption a big concern for governments? Well, no.

Scandals Most African states are yet to sign the convention, or a similar protocol launched by the United Nations. And the anti-corruption lobby, Transparency International (TI), still rates African countries, along with Asian states such as
Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh, as among the worst offenders in its world corruption rankings.

THE BEST AND THE WORST

5 least corrupt states:
Iceland

Finland
New Zealand
Denmark
Singapore

5 most corrupt states:
Chad
Bangladesh
Turkmenistan
Burma
Haiti

Source: Transparency International
Of the 20 countries perceived as most corrupt by TI, 12 are African states – including Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Kenya and Nigeria. Confounding the stereotypes is Botswana which comes out as the 31st least-corrupt state in the world ahead of Italy, Cyprus and Hungary.

Politicians insist that fighting corruption is about political will. While this often sounds good, what about the reality? Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki promised free primary education for all at a press conference in 2003, but two years later the former anti-corruption tsar, John Githongo, resigned in frustration and moved to London. He
said that some $500m has been sucked out of Kenya’s economy by corruption since Kibaki’s coalition government came to power. In real terms, that was around 10,000 primary school classrooms. In Nigeria, successive military juntas have overthrown elected civilian governments accusing them of stealing state assets, and then launched campaigns such as the “War against Indiscipline” – while locking up dissidents
for economic crimes and helping themselves to the state treasury. Hopes were high with the election of President Obasanjo in 1999 after nearly two decades of army rule, who made a powerful inaugural speech condemning state looting. But five years later few of those accused of theft under Sani Abacha’s regime have been tried, while only a tiny
percentage of the stolen money has been returned. Even in South Africa – with its renowned constitution and the moral guidance of former President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu – corruption is centre-stage. The Zuma case threatens to split asunder the ruling African National Congress, following claims that the charges are a
political ploy to prevent him from becoming the next president. Anti-corruption campaigns in Zambia and Malawi are equally troubled. The targets – former Presidents Frederick Chiluba and Bakili Muluzi – are putting up a spirited defence and rallying the support of old allies to counter-investigations and trials, prompting national
political crises.