(March 19, 2005) A non-binding resolution passed by Nigeria’s House of Representatives last week to halt payments on the country’s $35 billion external debt has provoked some strong responses.
The verdict: to hell with our creditors?
(March 17, 2005) Lagos: When President Olusegun Obasanjo last week received the House of Representatives leadership 24 hours after passing a resolution asking him to stop forthwith further debt service payments, the action was so uncharacteristic that I suspected there might be more to it.
Pinochet report welcomed in Chile
(March 17, 2005) The scale of the alleged fraud is greater than previously disclosed.
External debt is more political than economic
(March 16, 2005) All Nigerians must get behind the president’s campaign for debt cancellation.
Transparency International says construction most vulnerable to corruption
(March 16, 2005) A new report says construction, more than any other segment of a nation’s economy, is prone to corruption. Global graft watchdog Transparency International in its Global Corruption Report says that corruption is often so bad it "plunders the economy . . . and ravages the environment.
Goverment must implement Procurement Act to check corruption: Ghana
(March 16, 2005) The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has called on the country’s government to implement legislation that will allow it to subject ministers and public officials to greater degrees of scrutiny, particularly in regard to construction contracts.
Pinochet evades 17 million dollars in taxes
(March 15, 2005) Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet failed to pay more than 17 million dollars in back taxes to the Chilean Internal Revenue Service (IRS) since 1980, judicial sources revealed Tuesday.
US’s Lugar to propose multilateral bank reforms
(March 14, 2005) US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar will soon propose reforms to encourage increased accountability at multilateral financial institutions.
When the money goes west
(March 14, 2005) If the ill-gotten gains of the corrupt elite went into, say, mobile-phone companies at home, it wouldn’t be so bad. But the funds always go overseas.
Debt repudiation has its costs – Muhtar
(March 13, 2005) Lagos: Dr. Mansur Muhtar is the man in charge of managing Nigeria’s debt portfolio. In this interview with Tunde Rahman, he says the option of foreign debt repudiation as canvassed by the House of Representatives has its implications for the country. He also gives insights into the debt over-hang bedeviling the country.
A modest proposal
(March 13, 2005) Foreign aid’s prospects will brighten only if aid agencies become more accountable for results, and demonstrate to the public that some piecemeal interventions improve the lives of desperate people.
New bank law to help return of stolen cash
(March 12, 2005) The prime minister, Tony Blair, said yesterday that Britain would change its banking laws to speed up the return of funds stolen from Africa by corrupt leaders.
Annan welcomes UK Commission on Africa report as important contribution to solutions
(March 11, 2005) The report from Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa will be an important addition to the ongoing search for solutions to "the foremost development challenge facing the international community," United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today.
Erasing the scar
(March 11, 2005) Africa will not prosper until corruption is checked and governance improves. And that task, as the Africa Commission report says, is "first and foremost the responsibility of African countries and people."
What’s old is new
(March 11, 2005) UK media analysis of the long-awaited final report from British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa cast a restrained eye over the commission’s recommendations on trade, corruption, arms sales and aid, mindful the report could go the way of other Africa recovery plans unless it received the backing of rich nation groups like the Group of Eight (G8) and the European Union.
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