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- Feb 11, 2006
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Corrupt officials within the East African Community (EAC) member states who will be found guilty of having accumulated assets through corruption will have them forfeited and sold off to recover the proceeds and be paid back to government.
This will however be possible if the protocol that is being developed by the EAC secretariat on preventing and combating corruption is effectively implemented.
EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Political Federation Beatrice Kiraso revealed that the protocol being developed covers asset recovery and forfeiture, transfer of criminals and institution of criminal proceedings against the culprit.
"The protocol provides for extradition, judicial cooperation and mutual legal assistance and establishes a financial intelligence unit," she said in a speech presented on the theme "The role of EAC in promoting democracy in East Africa" at the East African Law Society (EALS) annual general meeting held in Bujumbura , Burundi recently.
She said that corruption is an evil that undermines development and provision of social services.
"It increases the cost of doing business and in the case of the EAC it can be a non-tariff barrier to trade but to effectively market the EAC as a single tourist and investment destination and trade zone and to negotiate as a single bloc in international for calls for high levels of integrity, transparency and accountability," she explained.
She however said that the challenge with corruption has not been absence of instruments at the national level but implementation and enforceability.
"Despite the EAC achievements in initiating policy, establishing regional institutions responsible for good governance, we still need strategies to enhance and maintain political will and commitment and flexibility to switch these strategies when the situation so warrants," she advised.
She said that non-implementation of legal frameworks has been singled out as an indication that the requisite political will which runs from top to bottom is weak.
"The citizenry should be continuously sensitized hence the need for advocacy programmes and if we are to harmonise policies, laws and set best practices, there is need to improve institutional capacity including technical, human and financial," she said.
She said that accountability is about power, about people having not just a say in official decisions but also their rulers to account.
"They can demand for answers to questions about decisions and actions and sanction public officials or bodies that do not live up to their responsibilities," she emphasized.
"Today the insistence that officials can be held accountable is extending to corporations, multinationals organizations and others who have power in public decision making," she added.
She said that holders of public trust should be answerable for their actions to the national legislatures and the public.
"The EAC has also developed a strategy that provides for development of a regional framework on good governance and a draft protocol on good governance also developed," she said.
She protocol is being developed on the four pillars of constitutionalism, rule of law and access to justice, democracy and democratization process, protection and promotion of human rights and equal opportunities and combating corruption and enhancing ethics and integrity.
"The draft protocol also addresses the issue of separation of powers between the executive, legislature and judiciary and seeks to establish regional standards, practices and benchmarks to promote democratic governance to foster regional integration,".
Source: East African Business Week
This will however be possible if the protocol that is being developed by the EAC secretariat on preventing and combating corruption is effectively implemented.
EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Political Federation Beatrice Kiraso revealed that the protocol being developed covers asset recovery and forfeiture, transfer of criminals and institution of criminal proceedings against the culprit.
"The protocol provides for extradition, judicial cooperation and mutual legal assistance and establishes a financial intelligence unit," she said in a speech presented on the theme "The role of EAC in promoting democracy in East Africa" at the East African Law Society (EALS) annual general meeting held in Bujumbura , Burundi recently.
She said that corruption is an evil that undermines development and provision of social services.
"It increases the cost of doing business and in the case of the EAC it can be a non-tariff barrier to trade but to effectively market the EAC as a single tourist and investment destination and trade zone and to negotiate as a single bloc in international for calls for high levels of integrity, transparency and accountability," she explained.
She however said that the challenge with corruption has not been absence of instruments at the national level but implementation and enforceability.
"Despite the EAC achievements in initiating policy, establishing regional institutions responsible for good governance, we still need strategies to enhance and maintain political will and commitment and flexibility to switch these strategies when the situation so warrants," she advised.
She said that non-implementation of legal frameworks has been singled out as an indication that the requisite political will which runs from top to bottom is weak.
"The citizenry should be continuously sensitized hence the need for advocacy programmes and if we are to harmonise policies, laws and set best practices, there is need to improve institutional capacity including technical, human and financial," she said.
She said that accountability is about power, about people having not just a say in official decisions but also their rulers to account.
"They can demand for answers to questions about decisions and actions and sanction public officials or bodies that do not live up to their responsibilities," she emphasized.
"Today the insistence that officials can be held accountable is extending to corporations, multinationals organizations and others who have power in public decision making," she added.
She said that holders of public trust should be answerable for their actions to the national legislatures and the public.
"The EAC has also developed a strategy that provides for development of a regional framework on good governance and a draft protocol on good governance also developed," she said.
She protocol is being developed on the four pillars of constitutionalism, rule of law and access to justice, democracy and democratization process, protection and promotion of human rights and equal opportunities and combating corruption and enhancing ethics and integrity.
"The draft protocol also addresses the issue of separation of powers between the executive, legislature and judiciary and seeks to establish regional standards, practices and benchmarks to promote democratic governance to foster regional integration,".
Source: East African Business Week
