U4 Helpdesk Query

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This question was submitted as an urgent query and therefore the response is relatively brief.

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Scale of Corruption

All but two of the countries you list (Ethiopia and Rwanda) have been surveyed through TI's Corruption Perceptions Index 2004. The results are provided below. Countries on which information was requested through this query are highlighted in capital letters. Regional and global average corruption scores have been used to create a sense of comparison as to how corrupt a particular country is perceived to be. The lower the ranking and the higher the score of the country, the least corrupt it is. Of the queried countries (not counting Ethiopia and Rwanda), the least corrupt ones are perceived to be South Africa, Ghana and Malawi. Perceived to be most corrupt is Nigeria, followed by Congo DRC and Kenya. Only South Africa ranks above both global and regional (African) average scores. Ghana ranks above average within Africa (but not globally). Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania rank slightly below average regionally.

In addition, if you are interested in individual country or regional corruption surveys and opinions polls, the following report may be of interest:

U4 Report: Local Corruption Diagnostics and Measurement Tools in Africa (by Anna Hakobyan and Marie Wolkers, TI, 2004).

There is also a matrix for a quick overview of what surveys are available for each surveyed African country.

The report was prepared for U4 in early 2004 and the selected countries were identified by the Steering Committee.

Recent International Initiatives on Asset Recovery of Relevance

1. G8 Asset Recovery Declaration and Action Points

The G8 Ministerial Declaration on Recovering Proceeds of Corruption was adopted at the Meeting of G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministers (Washington, May 2004). The Declaration makes provisions for series of initiatives with the aim of helping victim states recover illicitly acquired assets. These include establishing:

G8 Accelerated Response Teams: committing to utilize and deploy joint teams of forfeiture-related mutual legal assistance experts, in appropriate large-scale corruption cases, at the request of victim states whose assets have been secreted abroad.

G8 Asset Recovery Case Coordination: at the request of a state that is a victim of large-scale corruption, G8 countries would also consider establishing case-specific coordination task forces, including volunteer G8 and non-G8 countries as appropriate, to work through responses to mutual legal assistance and forfeiture requests.

G8 Asset Recovery Workshops: as appropriate, the G8 will be prepared to convene regional workshops to exchange information and best practices with potential victim states on international financial investigation techniques and on mutual legal assistance procedures to recover and, as appropriate, return assets to victims. Such efforts would be undertaken in coordination with existing regional and international organizations, and specialized agencies such as the UNODC.

2. UNODC Asset Recovery Initiative

The UNODC (and its UN Global Programme Against Corruption) runs an Asset Recovery Initiative. There are at present two pilot projects on recovery of proceeds of corruption and looted state assets in Kenya and Nigeria. The initiative aims at assisting countries in preventing and combating the transfer of funds deriving from acts of corruption, including the laundering of funds, and in returning such funds.

Contact:
Stuart Gilman, Head of Programme
UN Global Programme Against Corruption, UNODC Vienna
Telephone: +43(1) 26060-4406

Information on Amounts of Embezzled Funds (proceeds of corruption)

There is no fully accurate way of estimating the amounts of embezzled funds and corruption proceeds. Relevant teams within TI, U4 and UNODC were contacted, but very little data (in terms of actual figures) was found. The search revealed some data on three of the countries - Nigeria, Zaire/DRC and Kenya. Interestingly, of the list of countries provided for the purposes of this query, these are also the three countries perceived to be most corrupt (see above).

Nigeria
During the debate of the Second Committee of the General Assembly, at its fifty-seventh session, the representative of Nigeria affirmed that corrupt practices and the transfer of illicit funds had contributed considerably to capital flight. Africa ranked highest in that connection, the representative said, with an estimated $400 billion or more in funds having been looted and stashed away in foreign countries. An estimated $100 billion or more of that sum was from Nigeria. He also stressed that, by the account of the Government of Nigeria, the nation's total external debt stood at $28 billion, approximately 28 per cent of total funds siphoned out of the country.

It is estimated that Nigeria's President Sani Abacha (1993-1998) has embezzled between US $2 to 5 billion.
Sources: UNODC Anti-Corruption Toolkit; BBC News (04.09.2000); cited in TI's Global Corruption Report 2004.

Zaire/DRC
It is estimated that Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko (1965-1997) has embezzled around US $ 5 billion.
Source: UN General Assembly, Global Study on the Transfer of Funds of Illicit Origin, Especially Funds Derived from Acts of Corruption', November 2002 (printed in TI GCR 2004)

Kenya
It is estimated that Kenya has lost between US$3 billion and US$4 billion to corruption.
Source: UNODC Newsletter (citing Kenya's ambassador to the UN agencies in Vienna)