21 Aug 2013

Fighting corruption in Commonwealth Africa will help in fighting poverty and contributing towards the development and delivery of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This was said by Commonwealth Governance Advisor, Dr Roger Koranteng at the Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre (CAACC) stakeholders meeting and second phase of the Corruption Measurement, Monitoring and Evaluation Course in Gaborone on Monday.

Dr Koranteng said many developing countries whose public sectors were hampered by corruption, poor management and inadequate public services had made little or no progress towards achievement of MDGs.

“This underscores why the Commonwealth facilitates cooperation and building of an Anti-Corruption Agencies Association in Africa that can ensure an effective public administrative, responsive and efficient corruption-free public service,” he said.

Dr Koranteng said Commonwealth was ideally placed to support member states to develop and adopt measures and strategies to combat corruption and improve governance as entrenched in Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) mandate in 2005/6.

He said to this end, the Commonwealth Secretariat prioritised anti-corruption work to strengthen good governance through reduction in corruption and thereby promoting accountability and integrity in the Commonwealth.

To achieve this, he said, the Commonwealth Secretariat supported in-country collaborative approaches to deal with issues of corruption by mobilising all key institutions and other stakeholders involved in monitoring, detecting, responding to corruption related issues.

For his part,  Public Prosecutions director, Mr Leonard Sechele called on participants to build new partnerships where governments, the private sector, learning institutions and international organisations can work together to combat and prevent corruption as the fight against corruption needs the collaboration of all.
Mr Sechele said the meeting provided a platform for all to discuss and thrash the idea of collaboration and coming up with ways of complementing the centre in assisting the member countries in their efforts to reduce crime through training and research.

He said research coordinated by the centre would add value to anti-corruption agencies and provide highly relevant information to Commonwealth governments, universities, research institutions and the wider donor community.

For her part, Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime director general, Ms Rose Seretse said corruption knows no boundaries as it transcends beyond borders.

She stressed that the fight against corruption should not be left to anti-corruption agencies because when the economy of any country goes down the drain it would affect all people.

The CAACC was launched in February 2013 as a partnership between the Commonwealth Secretariat, Botswana government and Heads of

Anti-Corruption Agencies of the 19 Commonwealth African Countries.

The centre will assist members by facilitating the exchange of information concerning the practices and procedures used to combat corruption, provide interface with regional Anti-Corruption Agencies and other non-African countries of the Commonwealth to offer leadership in combating corruption. Ends