Maravi

'African societies are supportive of corruption'

'African societies are supportive of corruption'
By Mutale Kapekele in Livingstone
Sunday July 20, 2008 [04:00]

AFRICAN societies are supportive of corruption, deputy speaker of the Uganda Parliament Rosemary Nansubuga has said. And Nansubuga said African governments should domesticate international conventions on corruption to effectively fight graft across the continent. Presenting a paper on the role of African governments in combating corruption as a factor hindering economic advancement at the just-ended CPA Africa region conference, Nansubuga said as long as societies tolerated corruption, it would be difficult to fight the vice.

"The major challenge is that African societies have supportive attitude towards corruption, for instance, they glorify the rich in society, irrespective of how they acquired their riches," she said.

"Corruption is also more of supply and not demand driven; public officials do not necessarily demand bribes, but members of the public frequently offer bribes in exchange for quicker services and other favours."

Nansubuga said only when society stops tolerating corruption will the vice be effectively fought.

And Nansubuga said the United Nations and the African Union conventions were important protocols in fighting corruption in Africa.

"Uganda is a signatory to both these conventions and an effort is being made to incorporate them into domestic legislation; a case point is the anti-corruption bill of 2008," Nansubuga said. "This bill seeks to introduce new corruption offences such as influence peddling, conflict of interest, sectarianism and nepotism. These new salient offences had previously not been treated as corruption cases in Uganda and many other African countries."

She said reform against corruption should begin with a demonstration of political will and publicly supported leadership for the rule of law and against impunity.
"To give the anti-corruption drive political visibility, a Cabinet portfolio of ministry of ethics and integrity was created in Uganda and placed under the Office of the President," Nansubuga said. "…In addition, the leadership code has been introduced which requires that all public officials should regularly declare their assets and liabilities."

She said parliaments in Africa, through their legislative, oversight and representation mandates should create the enabling legislative framework for fighting corruption.

"Parliamentary accountability committees have become a major characteristic of African parliaments," she said. "However, most African parliaments face serious capacity gaps, especially in relation to oversight mandate. Also, lawmakers themselves are not above corruption. Legislators also have a role to play in introducing new and relevant legislation against corruption; they need to know the current limitations of the strategies against corruption."

Nansubuga also said the media and civil society were key players in articulating the "demand-side" of controlling corruption.

Labels: CORRUPTION, CULTURE, UGANDA

posted by MrK @ 6:55 PM