Mr. President,

Excellencies Heads of State, Heads of Government and Representatives.

Distinguished Participants,

 

First of all, I would like to congratulate all the organizers for the successful opening of this conference for the purpose of signing the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

 

The convening of this particular conference is a testimony to the fact that there is now a global consensus that corruption is one of the worst crimes hindering the global economic development and threatening international peace.

 

In recent years, the international community has passed resolutions and launched joint efforts to curb corruption in any of its forms. Despite these efforts, however, corruption continues to be one of the major threats of the globe, requiring the exertion of more effort in an integrated and coordinated manner.

 

Africa, in particular, has remained to be the foremost victim of corruption, losing billions of dollars each year at the expense of spending its limited resources to fighting HIV /AIDS, TB, malaria, ignorance, and poverty, which are the burning issues of the continent currently. As a major victim, therefore, Africa is doing its level best to control corruption and impropriety in collaboration and partnership with the rest of the world.

 

As part of the bigger continental coalition in the fight against corruption in Africa, Ethiopia is currently exerting all possible efforts to root out corruption practices and improper ties so that it can undertake its development endeavors sustain ably and speed up the pace of its development. The Ethiopian peoples and government can no more bare the brunt of corruption and impropriety. Cognizant of this reality, the

government, the top leadership in particular, is proving to be politically willing and determined to fight corruption seriously and with strong commitment.

As the first step of launching the national anti-corruption campaign, the government established the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) in 2001 under Proclamation No. 235/2001. It has also enacted the Anti-Corruption Special Procedure and Rules of Evidence Proclamation in the same year.

 

According to the establishment proclamation, the independent commission is duty-bound to create an aware society where corruption will not be condoned or tolerated by promoting ethics and anti-corruption education. It is also obliged by duty to prevent corruption offences and other improprieties by examining the practices and procedures in government offices and public enterprises to secure the revision of methods of work which may be conducive to corrupt practices. It is also responsible to create and promote integrity in public service by detecting investigating and prosecuting alleged or suspected cases of corruption offences and other improper ties. The commission is also entitled to cause the preparation and follow up the implementation codes of ethics for public officials and servants.

 

To realize its objectives of creating an aware society, the commission has offered intensive training on ethics and anti - corruption education for about 12,000 civil servants and other people drawn from different cross sections of the society since its establishment. In addition to this, tens of thousands of brochures, magazines and posters have been distributed among the general public. Most importantly, however, both the private and government media posed for their investigative work on the on-going anti-corruption campaign.

 

Regarding the prevention of corruption, the commission has thoroughly examined the practices, procedures and methods of work of several government departments and public enterprises including the Ethiopian Privatization Agency, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission and made public the results of the findings in the presence of the departments themselves and representatives drawn from the different cross sections of the society.

Based on the findings, the commission has made appropriate and constructive recommendations and urged those departments and public enterprises to take corrective measures sooner than later before corruption reaches a pervasive stage. Besides, a general study overhauling the legal and procedural loopholes in the civil and criminal codes, acts, laws and regulations that criminalize corruption has been conducted. Based on the study, mechanisms of plugging any legal and procedural loopholes have been proposed by the commission so that the implementation of the anti-corruption laws and proclamations will be more successful.

 

So far as creating and promoting integrity in public service through the detection, investigation and prosecution of alleged corruption cases is concerned, the commission is doing its utmost. In this connection, whistle blowers tipped the commission of 1,643 alleged corruption cases since its establishment. Based on the tips, the commission has brought  some of the suspected corrupters to justice with the investigation of the rest of the cases underway.

 

Regarding collaborative work with all stakeholders in the fight against corruption (including international organizations), the commission has been successful. It has, for example, forged a strong partnership with all stakeholders in the country in the fight against corruption and is currently working in collaboration with them. The civil society, media and private sector are our major partners in this regard. Internationally, we have been working closely with foreign governments and anti-corruption institutions. The participation of our delegation in the anti-corruption conferences held in Austria, Vienna, and South Korea, Soul, has been tremendously important and educative. We also held crucial discussions with Transparency International, the World Bank, and the American Embassy to Ethiopia on the successful realization of the commissions duties and objectives.

 

Having drawn important lessons from its own past activities and other international bodies with similar objectives, the commission is currently launching the anti-corruption campaign with new and renewed vigor and passion. Among the major projects to be launched this Ethiopian year, human resource development and capacity building and strict enforcement of codes of ethics and anti-corruption laws take top priority. The provision of anti-corruption education to the general public, the provision of physical and job security protection to witnesses and whistle blowers and the issuance of directives for the implementation of the anti-corruption proclamation and regulations issued under them are prioritized as major agenda of the commission this Ethiopian year. Making preparations to register or cause the registration of the assets and financial interest of public officials and other public servants is also high in the agenda of the commission.

 

In connection with restraining properties acquired through a criminal offence on court order, the action taken so far have plainly shown that corrupters will not get away with the properties they loot wherever they may be hiding away. Last year for example, shares worth 25 million Birr deposited in the names of corrupters and 57 vehicles owned by same were restrained on court order. In the years ahead, we will do our best to fight corrupters in courts in accordance with the anti-corruption special procedure and rules of evidence proclamation so that properties they plundered through the commission of corruption shall be restrained and confiscated.

 

To conclude, the Government and peoples of Ethiopia have fully recognized that corruption ad impropriety are capable of hindering the development and democratic processes in the country. It is therefore fighting corruption with strong determination, focusing on prevention through awareness, raising the ethics education. The participation of all cross-sections of the society and other stakeholders in the campaign against corruption will be encourage more than ever. In fighting corruption in the years ahead, the commission will work in close collaboration with the international community in general and international bodies with similar objectives in particular. I, once again stress the need for the international community to exert more and more effort in the fight against corruption in a coordinated and integrated manner so that resources will only go to curbing poverty and enhancing development. The united we are, the successful we become in our campaign against corruption.

 

I thank you

 

Presented by H.E. Dr. Berhanu Dibaba

 Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of the Federal

Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to Canada

 at the High-level Political Conference for the Purpose of Signing the

United Nations Convention against Corruption

 (Merida, Mexico, 9-11 December 2003)