PAP resolves to support AU anti-corruption drive
The Pan African Parliament has resolved to support the African Union theme for 2018 to combat corruption on the continent through making special efforts to ensure universal ratification of various conventions as well as undertaking to examine and debate the model law on corruption by the end of 2018.
The resolution has come at a time when the Corruption Perception Index for 2018 has shown a high corruption burden in sub-Saharan Africa with only Botswana and Mauritius the best in rooting the vice.
The workshop on Combating Corruption in Africa was held on Tuesday in Johannesburg, South Africa for the PAP Committee on Justice and Human Rights and organised by the AU organ, African Union Advisory Board on Corruption (AU-ABC) and the Multi-Sectoral Working Group (MSWG) comprising civil society organisations working in the fight against corruption.
The AU and the continent’s Regional Economic Communities have enacted continental and regional conventions to fight corruption among them the AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption which only 37 member states out of 54 have ratified, including Malawi.
The low levels of domestication of the convention and low impact of anti-corruption bodies established in some African countries prompted the AU to declare 2018 as the year of Combating Corruption in Africa.
Opening the workshop, chairperson of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights Ignatienne Nyirarukundo said PAP was ready to participate in all efforts to fight corruption.
“We are united here to discuss how we can work together. As long as we have not won the battle against corruption, we cannot achieve Sustainable Development Goals and the Agenda 2063,” she said.
A member of the MSWG, Pan African Lawyers Association’s Donald Deya advised PAP to check whether their countries have an independent national anti-corruption agencies and a strong revenue institution.
“PAP must advocate for a protocol to enhance the jurisdiction of the African Court to assist in building the capacity of national courts to prosecute corruption,” Deya said.
The workshop also addressed issues of illicit financing flows in Africa, corruption in political circles as well as lack of political will in some governments to strengthen the capacity of anti-corruption bodies.
