04 Aug 2013

Corruption must be rooted out as it has negative implications for the economy, chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises, Mr Robert Masitara has said. 

Presenting the report on Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises for the financial year ended 31 March 2011, Mr Masitara described corruption as an insidious plague that had a wide range of corrosive effects on societies. 

He said it undermined democracy and the rule of law, led to violations of human rights, distorted markets, eroded the quality of life and allowed organised crimes and other threats to human security to flourish. 

Mr Masitara noted that corruption hurts the poor disproportionately by diverting funds intended for development, undermining government’s ability to provide basic services, feeding inequality and injustice and discouraging foreign aid and investments.  Countries and institutions that lacked systems of accountability and transparency typically allowed for high levels of corruption, he said. 

Mr Masitara said corruption could no longer be ignored saying governments all over the world and Parliaments were up in the fight against it.  "We have been hiding in the dark for too long, realising and accepting the fact that corruption exists will bring us one step closer to preventing it,"  he said. ENDS