Corruption Sucking Africa Dry, Says AU

Report shows billions of dollars leave continent each year for secret bank accounts

Corruption is one of the main reasons Africa is so deeply in debt and poverty , and famine and deaths are increasing, Adama Dieng, a governance expert for the African Union (AU), said in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa yesterday.

"A direct consequence of this is the emergence of a small, young class of billionaires while the vast majority of the population is wallowing in misery," Dieng said.

Africa's foreign debt is estimated at more than 300bn.

In a report prepared last year, but not made public, the AU estimated corruption on the continent increased the costs of goods by as much as 20%.

"Billions of dollars leave the continent each year for secret bank accounts in countries of the north," Dieng said.

The report, obtained by wire service AP yesterday, says capital flight from Africa is estimated to have reached 148bn since the end of colonialism to 2003.

In Uganda the civil service once had 42 000 nonexistent workers as officials creamed off the salaries, the report said.

In the 1990s losses in customs and fiscal receipts that resulted from corruption were estimated at 9% of Gambia's gross domestic product.

Meanwhile, the issue of corruption in Africa was also raised at Transparency International's conference, New Anti-Corruption Governments: The Challenge of Delivery, that ended in Kenya yesterday.

Peter Eigen, chairman of the Berlin-based body, the world' s leading nongovernmental organisation fighting corruption, said in his address on Tuesday that corruption was the world's "main cause of poverty and underdevelopment".

This leads "to the fatalism and despondency to which millions may find themselves hostage. This is, unfortunately, most true here on the African continent where inequalities are most stark, where the corruption often breeds the most persistent conflicts," Eigen said.

The conference was intended to help foster constructive dialogue on the anticorruption strategies open to new reformminded governments and to develop critical recommendations to support their efforts.

The meeting included participants from Ghana, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Slovakia, SA, South Korea and Zambia.

Georgia's premier said yesterday that every week counted for new governments wanting to drive through a reform agenda.

Speaking at Transparency International's conference in Nairobi, Kenya, Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania said: "Don't be afraid of your mistakes. Use your chance. Maybe you won't have another one."

Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said new governments across the world had promised to eradicate corruption, but found it difficult.

"Corruption has proved hard to kill," he said. "It hits back. And with the accumulated resources of decades it hits hard. Reform-minded nations have taken many knocks."