Global Policy Forum

By Helina Megersa

Corruption can cost African governments up to 50 percent in lost tax revenue, and in some instances, could be more than a country's total foreign debt, according to a research finding by the African Development Bank.

The research on the consequences also reveals that corruption can add up to 100 percent to the cost of government goods and services. In the process, it adds, corruption increases the prices of public services, lowers quality and restricts access by the poor.

On the workshop organised by African Development Bank Group (ADBP) at the Head Quarters of the African Union, Mr. Philbert Afrika ADB Director of Operations, Policy and Review said: "It is estimated that lower income households on average spend 2-3 percent of their income on bribes, compared to 0.9 percent for rich households," he said.

A business performance survey also shows that small enterprises pay on average more than twice as much of their annual revenue in bribes than do large firms.

Ambassador Afrika stated that ADB views the fight against corruption as a key development challenge of the new millennium. He said that past experience has shown that anti corruption strategies are more effective when incorporating elements of prevention, detection, enforcement and education.

Speaker of the House of Peoples Representatives of Ethiopia Ato Dawit Yohannes on his part said that corruption is a disease that is eating into the body politics of African societies and needs to be combated as early as possible.

"To those of us who are committed to fight for development, for the eradication of poverty, peace and development in the African continent the fight against corruption is a central theme that has to be dealt with before we proceed any further."

"In that respect we see this conference as being very important and viable component of our understanding of the need for development and what it needs to pass through our challenges," he added.

He also said that the culture of corruption has been a very pestering problem in efforts towards democratic governance in Africa. "Parliaments, representative institutions, of all kinds will have to make sure corruption has to be removed," Dawit said.

Dawit said that in the context of poverty, corruption plays a tremendous role in holding us backward.

The four-day workshop is organised to assist member states that do not have national action plans for preventing and combating corruption.

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