Will African countries end corruption?
Fraud and plundering of public funds are the battles that have to be won by all African countries, Hon. Richard Msowoya.
The call was made by the Speaker of the Malawi National Assembly during the opening of the week long fifth executive committee of the African Organisations for Public Accounts Committee (AFROPAC) at Parliament Building in Lilongwe.
The meeting drew participants from ten African countries and was being held alongside the African Voice for Strategic planning workshop.
In an interview with Insight, the Speaker said that Africa has a very long way to go in order to win the battle against fraud and abuse of public resources hence the need for PAC to play oversight roles that will yield positive results.
The speaker further said that fraud and plundering of public funds are the battles that have to be won by all African countries, we must move from mere checking of what has been misappropriated in the approved budgets to seriously scrutinizing the huge sums of money that African countries are losing through illicit financial flows.
The United Nation economic commission for Africa says that every year, Africa loses between $30 Billion and $60 Billion due to illicit financial flows and these are factors that negatively affect the economic growth on the continent
In his remarks, Afropac Chairperson Edward Dangoseh said the meeting has helped African countries in finding solutions to end corruption, fraud and any other related issues and enhance public finance management.
Malawi’s Public Accounts Committee Chairperson Alekeni Menyani agreed with the speaker saying that public
finance management is a very serious challenge which parliamentarians ought to do more than just oversight. The ten countries Malawi hosted are Kenya, Liberia, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda.
…we must move from mere checking of what has been misappropriated in the approved budgets to seriously scrutinizing the huge sums of money that African countries are losing through illicit financial flows.
