Africa is today the place of all covetousness. The continent is experiencing strong demographic and economic growth, which is attracting African and foreign investors. As stated by the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, "the situation of the continent is good. Africa's overall economic performance continues to improve. We can only rejoice, as Africans but also as Europeans, as the destiny of the two continents is closely linked.
Despite this, as Transparency International's 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index indicates, corruption is considered the highest in the world: "corruption is a factor that contributes to the crisis of democracy", producing "a vicious circle by undermining democratic institutions". It is therefore surprising that the president of the IMF, Mrs. Christine Lagarde, has only recently given this subject priority over others!
Due to its rapid development, Africa is attracting the interest not only of investors but also of national and international authorities (DoJ, SFO, Financial Action Task Force (FATF)), as well as courts in many jurisdictions.
Several initiatives have been taken by African countries, both multilateral and national, in order to comply with national and international anti-corruption and anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing rules, in the broad wake of the action of the Americans and their Patriot Act.
The African Union is an organization that fights corruption through several programs to strengthen it. The African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption adopted by the 2e Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Maputo on July 11, 2003 is one of the most elaborate and comprehensive texts at the global level for preventing and fighting corruption in a multilateral context.
Beyond the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, whose principles are well known, several complementary initiatives have been launched.
First of all, the EITI initiativeEITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) deserves attention: it is an international organization responsible for maintaining and overseeing the implementation of a global standard for promoting open and accountable governance of oil, gas and mineral resources. This international organization is active in several countries, particularly in Africa. According to Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, "EITI has empowered citizens by giving them access to critical information that they can use to hold government and other actors in the extractive industries to account and to make recommendations for reforms in these strategic sectors of our national life.
A lack of transparency, poor governance, and mismanagement of money flows could fuel corruption, lead to the decline of state institutions, and ultimately result in a missed opportunity for development.
Thus, to ensure greater transparency and good governance of operations, the EITI standard requires disclosure of information about the entire value chain of the extractive sector, from the granting of extraction rights to how revenues reach the government and the benefits to the public.
Is it perfectly applied? We know it is not. Is it a step forward? That is undeniable.
"Botswana is a beacon of hope in the fight against corruption in Africa and has one of the best anti-corruption profiles on the continent. This was the statement made by Said Adejumobi, Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Regional Director for Southern Africa, at the three-day regional conference on "Corruption and the Challenge of Economic Transformation in Southern Africa" in Gaborone, Botswana, on June 18, 2018.
Ranked 33e in Transparency International's 2018 report (again!), Botswana occupies a special place in the fight against corruption in Africa by ranking first among the least corrupt countries in the region. This ranking is always questionable as it is difficult to establish rankings measuring a hidden phenomenon!
Because of the rational and rigorous exploitation of its diamond mines and the good governance of its institutions and leaders, the country has become a model.
As early as 1994, the Government of Botswana set up an independent and powerful department, the Directorate for Combating Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), with the specific mission of fighting these two scourges.
The President of the Republic of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi, notes that good accounting policies, internal controls and audit systems, strong anti-corruption and oversight institutions and the rule of law are essential to fighting corruption. Good governance is the corollary to an effective and efficient fight against corruption. So many institutions that are still lacking in many countries in Africa... but also elsewhere, sometimes north of the Pyrenees and not so far from us where some groups can incur losses in the billions without the authorities of financial governance caring about it.
Other African countries are also showing initiative. In 2007, South Africa acceded to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and joined the Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions, made up of representatives from the 38 signatory countries, to monitor the application and enforcement of the Convention.
In June 2010, the Working Group completed the second phase of South Africa's evolution, according to which the country has made very significant efforts to fight corruption, but could - it's obvious - go further. A virtuous cycle has been set in motion, albeit from a distance, but a momentum is building.
There are several NGOs whose objective is to fight against the evils that affect Africa such as corruption or bad governance.
Global Witness is a London-based NGO specializing in the fight against the plundering of natural resources (oil, timber, diamonds) in developing countries and the political corruption that accompanies it.
For twenty-five years, Global Witness has been leading pioneering campaigns against natural resource conflicts and corruption, as well as the associated environmental and human rights abuses. The NGO has carried out several campaigns in countries such as Congo, Angola and Sierra Leone, revealing the brutality and injustice generated by the struggle for access to and control of natural resources. The NGO seeks to hold accountable those responsible for this corruption and the perpetrators of these conflicts. As the "Sherpa" of the Anglo-Saxon African world, it is a pioneer in anti-corruption activism, often the bête noire of corporations and investors.
Africa Compliance Unit, whose objective is the fight against corruption and money laundering in African countries, the aid to sustainable development and the assistance of fragile populations in the defense of their fundamental rights, is also a key player.
As Prosper Alagbe, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Africa Compliance Unit, reminds us, "Sustainable economic development and the fight against poverty in Africa require as a priority (...) the encouragement of good governance, through, [on the one hand], the promotion in Africa of control functions within companies and public organizations and, [on the other hand], assistance to fragile populations in the defense of their fundamental rights and in their daily struggle against poverty.
There are other associations or NGOs that are at the origin of several initiatives to improve good governance in Africa and thus reduce corruption or money laundering. We will not mention them all. Not all of them are free of criticism, especially regarding the origin of their financial resources, but are Western NGOs free of criticism on this point?
Beyond the fight against fraud and corruption, several initiatives are underway to strengthen the culture and rules of compliance applicable to business life in Africa.
As an example, we can mention the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing through the institutions created by the FATF and its regional emanations.
The application by the United States of its economic sanctions and export control rules through the rules and actions of the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) is another illustration. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that African countries are the most sanctioned by OFAC, Africa being the geographic area most targeted by these American rules and for good reason: the sanctioned countries are sanctioned because of their political instability, their situation of civil war or their recent exit from civil war, but also because of the will to power of the United States, committed to "frame" Africa with their dominating rules.
The existence of autocratic regimes that create serious human rights abuses and the weakness of the regulatory framework to fight money laundering and terrorist financing are obviously the logical justification for American interventionism. History is repeating itself here in a very flat way.
The role of banks is crucial to the development of economic activity in developing African countries since, particularly in money laundering schemes, some banks are one of the weak links in a long process undermining the integrity of the banking services market.
Are traditional African cultures inherently corrupt?
Probably no more so than in any other continent. As in any human group, individual and collective relationships generate phenomena of domination, which are potential breeding grounds for corruption, but which do not necessarily constitute corruption and fraud.
The history of colonial domination has brought new relations of domination, themselves a factor in the development of transgressive behavior.
Today, the new power relations that are traversing Africa are an opportunity for renewed corruptions but also for initiatives of prevention and struggle from which the backgrounds of sovereign domination are obviously not exempt.
Author: Pierre Laporte
Executive Director of Compliance
