Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
New York (Agenzia Fides)- Every year Africa loses 148 billion dollars because of corruption. This was reported by the United Nations Organisation and the World Bank which have launched a joint Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative (STAR) to retrieve the money illegally subtracted from the people
“Theft of public assets in developing countries is a serious and concerning problem” said UN secretary general Ban ki Moon at the presentation of the initiative at the UN headquarters in New York. He was accompanied by the President of the World Bank Robert Zoellick who said that the money stolen from public accounts is taken at the expense of social programmes and therefore the people most in need. “There can be no hiding places for those who rob from the poor” said Zoellick.
According to the World Bank corrupt politicians and administrators in poor countries pocket between 20 and 40 billion dollars; a sum equivalent to 40% of the funds these countries receive in aid from developed countries. The president of the World Bank gave an example of how funds recovered from corruption could be used. “ 100 million dollars will vaccinate 4 million children, supply clean water to 250,000 homes, provide 600,000 people with HIV/AIDS with a whole year of complete treatment”.
The question is how to combat “tax free havens” (States with little transparency in legislation and where the banking secret is rigidly observed) and force financial institutes to collaborate with the state authorities. Recently the Swiss authorities collaborated with those in Nigeria to recover 505 million dollars hidden in Swiss banks by the former dictator Sani Abacha. But this was a drop in the petrodollar ocean seeing that since 1960 Nigerian citizens have been robbed of some 400 billion dollars of oil profits (see Fides 4 September 2007).
In Africa however there is growing awareness that correct use of African resources is a problem: besides corruption, also bad management prevents the development of several economies. The press in Mali for example asks why despite the ever increasing international price of gold, the country gains so little from the sale of the precious metal. Mali is Africa's third largest gold producer. The Mali Association for Human Rights presented a report compiled by an international enquiry commission which analyses several factors which prevent the promised positive effects of the development of the mineral industry from happening. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 21/9/2007 righe 33 parole 445)
