“Corruption is inimical to development,” says Transparency International Advisory Committee Chair, Peter Eigen

Transparency International Advisory Committee Chair, Peter Eigen, has said corruption is inimical to development. Mr. Eigen made the statement while on a two-day (September 22-23) visit to the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group’s temporary relocation agency in Tunis where he launched the 2008 Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

Speaking during an interview, Mr. Eigen said "the central message in this year’s CPI is that corruption is inimical to development and growth, both in poor and rich countries." The report indicates across the board that while some countries have made progress in reducing corruption, others have relapsed. "Many countries are coming out of this year’s report with ratings less than 5, which is the middle of the range. Any country below 5 is a major corruption country.  It’s a call to leaders of countries below the middle point to do something about corruption," he stressed.

Focusing on the CPI, he pointed to slight improvements made by some African countries such as Nigeria and Mauritius. "I have noticed that Nigeria has improved quite a bit. Mauritius has improved.  So, in a sense there are possibilities to deal with corruption," he said. He also pointed out that some rich countries like the U.K. and Norway had fallen back on the index, adding that it was an indication corruption was not a monopoly of African leaders. So, this year the message is that we must remind countries in the northern hemisphere that they have to enforce the OECD convention on corruption more rigorously.  The report reminds us that corruption is one of the biggest obstacles to development, fighting poverty, avoiding violence in many parts of the word, and therefore, gives us the mandate to work together," he emphasized.

Mr. Eigen used the occasion to also discuss the strategic importance of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and emphasized the need to turn the table on corruption in order to promote sustainable development and poverty reduction, especially in Africa and other developing countries. "Corruption is very much also the responsibility of the north," Mr. Eigen stressed.

Regarding calls for the expansion of EITI’s scope and reach to include, among other sectors, forestry and fisheries, Mr. Eigen said the calls were logical, adding that it was interesting listening to the AfDB Executive Director from Seychelles, Peter Sinon, when he said his constituency was very much interested in having fisheries on the EITI schedule. Mr. Eigen pointed to the fact that Liberia had already included forestry, adding that his organization had to be very careful not to "bite more than it could chew", given that there were lots of challenges to deal with even in the areas on which EITI was focusing on.  "Already, in the mining area, we are facing enormous challenges. For instance, in a country like the Democratic Republic of Congo, people are engaged in artisanal mining which is almost impossible to track and report on. This situation exists in other countries even when supposedly reputable companies are involved," he pointed out.

The fisheries and forest sector pose greater challenges. Some of the poor countries in this sector are basically pillaged by large companies from the north. There is a lot of pressure for us to work in these sectors, but it will take some time, he said.

Currently, 16 of the 23 countries working with EITI are African, but none has been certified EITI-compliant. EITI has a process which takes a country through 18 different steps, developed by an advisory group which worked on it for a whole year. This is to ensure that a multi-stakeholder governance of this process will be relevant at every implementation stage.

"I would think the first four steps are the important ones because they include the commitment of the government at a very high level to participate in EITI. It includes the willingness of the government to put together a multi-stakeholder group which will be in charge of managing the process in the country. This will comprise the private sector, civil society organizations, the public sector as well as one high-level person, appointed by the government with the power of a convener. This is very often a minister or permanent secretary. The other condition, a very technical one, is funding for the multi-stakeholder group to implement its activities. When this is done, the country becomes what we call "Candidate country, he explained. 

He commended the role played by the AfDB in assisting African countries join the EITI process. "We have cooperated on EITI with your staff at conferences and as you may know, Bank Group President, Donald Kaberuka, was at the global founding conference in Oslo. I consider our partnership with the AfDB as something very solid.  This visit is meant to reconfirm and consolidate the relationship. Last week, I had a wonderful meeting with Mr. Kaberuka during which he basically confirmed everything he had said about the EITI.  He continues to support the Initiative and will be a keynote speaker at a stakeholders’ conference we plan to hold in Doha in February next year.  He also agreed to participate in the Mediterranean high level roundtable scheduled to take place in Tunis in November 2008. I left my meeting with him with the feeling that there is a very solid and very important relationship between us," he said. 

He added that the Central African Republic would soon join the group and "we also have very interesting countries trying to join such as Iraq, Botswana, and South Africa."