MEPs in bid to stamp out bribes in African economies

By David Cronin

Date: 30/03/06

The European Parliament will next week urge that a portion of EU development aid be used to track corruption in poor countries.

A report set for approval by MEPs in Strasbourg (6 April) cites African Union estimates that corruption costs African economies more than EUR 122 billion - 25% of the continent's gross domestic product - each year. Corruption can hamper efforts to reduce poverty, it says, especially when resources for health and education are affected.

The report advocates that "an appropriate percentage" of aid should be set aside for non-governmental watchdogs to monitor how public finances are managed in poor countries.

Dutch Socialist MEP Max van den Berg, the report's author, had originally called for 0.5% of all development aid channelled through the EU's budget to be reserved for that purpose. But the development committee decided not to recommend such a specific ring-fencing.

Van den Berg said that he was not disappointed by this lack of precision. "As long as the idea is accepted, I don't mind so much," he added.

"The EU should make the fight against corruption a central element of its development policy, focusing on issues such as good governance, state capacity and public sector management."

His report argues that greater transparency on public spending is vital in developing countries, as some governments withhold information on how budgets are executed by concealing military expenditure. Uganda, which has a protracted conflict in the north of its country, has been told by international donors that it must open its defence activities to greater scrutiny over the past few years, for example.

A Ugandan diplomat said that he would have "no difficulty" with EU aid being used to finance anti-corruption watchdogs.

Van den Berg is also calling on the European Commission and EU member states to devise a blacklist to prevent banks from lending large sums to corrupt regimes.

A spokesman for Louis Michel, the commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, said that high standards of accountability were vital especially as the EU was making a greater use of direct budgetary assistance to governments, rather than investing in a large number of smaller-scale development projects.

"Increased budgetary aid allows us to have more transparency and means that our political leverage is bigger," the spokesman added.

The proportion of EU development aid which went directly to the national coffers of recipient countries rose from 14% in 2001 to 30% in 2004.

Diarmid O'Sullivan from Global Witness, an organisation which studies the links between bribery, conflict and human rights abuses, said: "Corruption is a major obstacle to development, so fighting corruption should be a cornerstone of EU policy on aid to developing countries."

Article anticipates the discussion at the European Parliament of a report, drafted by Dutch Socialist MEP Max van den Berg, calling on the EU to make the fight against corruption a central element of its development policy. According to the report a part of EU aid should be set aside for non-governmental watchdogs to monitor how public finances are managed in poor countries.

European Parliament: A6-0048/2006: Own-initiative Report on aid effectiveness and corruption in developing countries, 27.2.06 http://europarl.europa.eu/omk/sipade3?PUBREF=-//EP//NONSGML+REPORT+A6-2006-0048+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&L=EN&LEVEL=0&NAV=S&LSTDOC=Y

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