Many governments are falling behind on their commitments under the African Union’s anti-corruption convention

When the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combatting Corruption (AUCPCC) was adopted by the African Union Assembly in 2003, it was a huge step towards resolving the continent’s serious corruption challenges. Designed as a shared roadmap for member states to implement governance and anti-corruption measures, the convention aims to eradicate corruption in government and business.

Today, 44 of the 55 member states have ratified the convention, yet there is little information on how well it is implemented in practice. A new report by Transparency International explores this, looking at three important areas: money laundering, illicit enrichment and political party funding, as well as the role civil society and media play in fighting corruption

Money laundering

Money laundering facilitates heinous crimes that damage the lives of millions of Africans across the continent. When criminals make money through arms sales, poaching or corruption, they need to make the cash appear clean before they can use it.

Under the AUCPCC, countries are meant to make money laundering illegal. Most countries have done so, but the convention does not give them a framework for how to prevent it, nor does it equip authorities with the tools they need to investigate and prosecute money launderers.

Illicit enrichment

When government officials channel public funds into their own pockets, they hinder the development of local communities and entire countries. Illicit enrichment is a crime under the AUCPCC, though few member states do enough to enforce the laws. The offence is notoriously difficult to prosecute, not least because many suspected offenders are high-profile and well-connected figures, who often enjoy political immunity.

This often involves unduly influencing judges: in Nigeria, a serving judge of the Federal High Court had received US$260,000 – paid into his personal bank account over a two-year period – and was unable to show a legitimate source of the deposits. Still, the appeals court dismissed all charges on procedural grounds.

Political party funding

When money from opaque and unregulated sources is allowed to infiltrate politics, it becomes difficult to hold politicians and their parties accountable. Lack of transparency in political party funding also allows hidden actors to finance and buy politicians for their own interests – states get captured by the corrupt.

Compared to some other anti-corruption treaties, the AUCPCC is unique in placing a clear obligation on state parties to legislate for and effectively enforce transparency requirements for political party funding. However, most countries fail to expressly ban the use of illegally acquired funds in political financing. Even where strong legislation is in place, it is rarely enforced, and when enforcement does occur, sanctions are either too lenient or too severe: some overly light sentences fail to discourage offenders while in other cases political parties get broken up, which harms democracy.

Whenever people talk about African culture I just LOL! There's no single developed African country, none! Our African culture matter when it comes to things like this we only remember African culture when it's them to repress, subjugate, and vilify women.

Africa can never be better, blame the white man all you want but they've left your continent many years ago but now African leaders are the ones plundering the continent and taking our wealth to them.