02
Apr
The joint report by the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) on illicit financial flows from Africa has been described as inadequate to stem corruption and the tide of illicit flows out of the continent.
The assertion was made by a legal practitioner and human rights expert, Dr. Kola Olaniyan, in a position paper he released recently. Olaniyan, who is based in London, UK, is the author of ‘Corruption and Human Rights Law in Africa’.
Olaniyan, in his paper, said the “panel’s scanty treatment of fundamental questions about the nature of IFFs, especially grand corruption, and the impunity of high-ranking government officials that continues to provide the incentives for IFFs to flourish, is a wasted opportunity to rethink how Africa deals with the impunity dimension of IFFs”.
He admitted that “the report has made good headlines. Some have described the report as “a turning-point”; others said its recommendations are “game changing,” and capable of addressing the problem both within Africa and globally.
“The report, produced by the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa presided over by former South African president Thabo Mbeki was earlier overwhelmingly endorsed by the AU at its recent 24th Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa.
“Mbeki deserves credit for obtaining continent-wide endorsement for the report, and the panel’s recommendation that efforts to combat illicit financial flows be included in the post-2015 Development Agenda is timely, given the expected expiration of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the steps by the international community to adopt a fresh set of goals (Sustainable Development Goals), expected to be fulfilled over the next 15 years.
“The report also contains some useful recommendations on the importance of preventive measures and institutional and capacity building in combating illicit financial flows.
“But the panel’s narrowed notion of what constitute ‘illicit financial flows’ (IFFs) combined with a disproportionate focus on the responsibility of big corporations and ‘organised criminals,’ while seemingly minimising the primary responsibility of African governments and leaders, suggests that much more is still required to effectively combat IFFs in Africa”, Olaniyan pointed out.
“The panel’s calculation suggests that just around $2.5 billion of the $50 billion of IFFs account for corrupt funds. In contrast, commercial activities account for 65 per cent while other criminal activities take 30 per cent. But the panel’s figure contradicts even the $18 billion that the AU once told us is stolen each year from Africa. The panel should have probed further the responses to its questionnaires that suggest that “corruption is the greatest source of IFFs from the continent”, Olaniyan added.
To him, “the panel’s recommendation that the mandate of the AU advisory board on corruption (established pursuant to article 22 of the AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption) be expanded to cover IFFs ignores the many problems currently besetting the board.
“Yet, any potential role for the board with respect to IFFs must first resolve some critical issues such as allegations of mismanagement among its leadership, and the fact that its advice is routinely rejected by states. The board also doesn’t have a structure of its own, but is housed within a small department in the Secretariat of the AU Commission in Addis Ababa.
“To be sure, grand corruption poses a serious threat not only to African citizens and their communities, through for example, lives blighted by poverty, inequality and societies living in fear, but also a regional and global threat which can undermine the democratic and economic basis of societies, and thereby leading to a loss of confidence in the rule of law.
“The sad reality is that African governments and leaders generally lack the requisite political will to tackle grand corruption. High-ranking corrupt officials also seem to be getting more cunning but anticorruption agencies, the police and security services are not independent or working hard enough to catch them.
“It’s going to be very difficult to get the report’s recommendations implemented as long as African governments and leaders continue to dock their primary responsibility, and corrupt leaders are not hit where it most hurts—in their huge stolen public funds that they and their families and friends are sloshing around the world’s onshore and offshore financial centres that depend heavily on de jure or de facto bank secrecy”, he added.
Olaniyan said, “If Africa is to truly exercise its sovereignty – both political and economic – it must make getting rid of grand corruption its utmost priority. Sovereignty implies “conducting an independent foreign and internal policy, building of schools, construction of roads, in brief, all types of activity directed towards the welfare of people.” Sovereignty cannot be conceived as a licence for African leaders to commit acts of corruption that imperil human dignity, and then to somehow attempt to shield themselves from responsibility.
“By taking grand corruption seriously, African governments and leaders will be reducing the incentives that allow other illicit financial flows to flourish. But if corruption is to be satisfactorily addressed across Africa, it will take a determined push from the ‘woman and man on the street’ and not an elite that becomes ever wealthier as it becomes ever less accountable”, he added.
Source:http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/-mbeki-s-report-cannot-stem-illicit-financial-flows-in-africa-/205376/