Daily Corruption Report: After already spending time in jail on embezzlement allegations, former French Polynesia president Gaston Flosse, an ally of former French president Jacques Chirac, was again placed in provisional detention on Wednesday on fresh corruption charges. In Angola, the president’s family taint the corruption fight as columnist Joao Melo wrote in that although Angolan society should
support President Jose Eduardo dos Santos in his “necessary crusade” against corruption, Angolans also had the right to point the finger at his shortcomings. While Nigeria would receive £297m (about N69bn) to finance its anti-graft war from the European Union (EU) as part of Support to Reforming Institutions Programme (SRIP) next year.
The said sum would come to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to finance programmes aimed at more transparent budget management and improved public service delivery.
Angola: Angolan president’s family taint corruption fight
Reuters
Bangladesh: Corruption, democracy and Bangladesh
The Nation
Czech Republic: Třetina Čechů uplácí lékaře (one third of Czechs bribe doctors)
EuroZpravy.CZ (TI mention)
China: Ex-judge facing China bribery charges kills self
France: Former president Flosse in detention facing new corruption charges
France24
Laos: Laos marks World Anti-corruption Day
AsiaOne
New Zealand: Govt must prove rorts, say lawyers
New Zealand Herald
Nigeria: EU budgets N69 billion to fight corruption in the country
AllAfrica
Vietnam: Donors say Vietnam should respect rights
Reuters
— News from the TI movement
AFP – Former French Polynesia president Gaston Flosse was placed in provisional detention again on Wednesday after new corruption charges were laid against him including for complicity in destroying evidence.
Flosse, 78, an ally of former French president Jacques Chirac, was released last week following a decision by a special bail judge after spending 16 days in jail on embezzlement allegations.
However prosecutors filed the new charges against the senator for French Polynesia and were able to convince a panel of judges that he should be held pending the investigation.
“This provisional detention will allow the investigation to take its course: witness confrontations between December 3 and 11, filing requests for assistance, other hearings and detention” of other suspects, Prosecutor Jose Thorel told AFP.
Requests for assistance are likely to be filed to financial investigators and the Papeete police.
Flosse was taken to the Nuutania penitentiary near Papeete.
In September, police searched the senator’s home and his Tahoera’s Huiraatira party headquarters.
Flosse, a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing majority in the Senate, served four terms as head of the French Pacific territory between 1984 and 2008.
He was questioned in July by financial investigators in Paris over the alleged embezzlement of some 1.5 million euros (2.26 million dollars) from the Polynesian post and telecoms office.
The French Senate has partially lifted Flosse’s immunity to allow investigations to be conducted against him.
The probe against Flosse was launched after a damning report by Polynesia’s public finance watchdog, the CTC, on the use of state funds and award of contracts during his period in office.
Angola
Angolans should feel free to criticise the president over his family’s business dealings now that he has called for increased efforts to fight corruption, a prominent member of the ruling MPLA party said.
Columnist Joao Melo wrote in the Jornal de Angola on Wednesday that although Angolan society should support President Jose Eduardo dos Santos in his “necessary crusade” against corruption, Angolans also had the right to point the finger at his shortcomings.
Melo’s views are important because he is a respected figure within the MPLA and has a high degree of visibility in the media through his his opinion columns in the state-owned newspaper.
His unusual piece was published after dos Santos asked the MPLA in a speech last month to adopt a “zero tolerance” policy on corruption — a term rarely used in goverment circles despite Angola’s poor record on graft.
“Only the president has the power to lead the fight against corruption and the excesses of economic power in this phase of the country’s transition. Therefore, I defend that the whole of society should back the president,” Melo said.
“Obviously, this support has to be critical. This is how I understand, for example, the allusions in newspapers last weekend to some of the deals involving some of the president’s family.”
Dos Santos’ eldest daughter Isabel, also known as the princess because of her extensive business interests, holds stakes in some of the biggest firms in sectors ranging from banking to telecommunications in Angola.
Tchize dos Santos, another one of the president’s daughters, is involved in the management of Angola’s state-owned broadcaster TPA2 and in the restructuring process of the only other state-run television channel, TPA1.
In a country where an estimated two-thirds of the population live on less than $2 a day, the growing influence of the dos Santos family, amid calls for greater transparency by the president himself, have hit a raw nerve with many Angolans.
Privately owned weekly newspaper Semanario Angolense ran a front-cover headline: “JES (Jose Eduardo dos Santos) shot himself on the foot” after the president made his Nov 21 speech on corruption.
Melo said other MPLA members feel the same way too.
“I am sure that, as a sharp and experienced politician, he will know how to consider these observations, which I can assure you … are shared by some of his equals on the board of the MPLA,” said Melo.
Angolan writer Artur Pestana, a former minister and member of the MPLA, also jumped on the bandwagon, telling Angolans to avoid what he called the cult of “the boss” and speak their own mind.
“It’s all a question of educating the population. If we are not educating the people in the cult of the boss, then the cult of the boss will continue like in all African regimes,” he said at a conference on Tuesday.
“Do we want to move past this or not? That is the question.”
Angola ranks among the world’s 18 most corrupt nations, according to a Transparency International index.
Nigeria
Nigeria would receive £297m (about N69bn) to finance its anti-graft war from the European Union (EU) as part of Support to Reforming Institutions Programme (SRIP) next year.
The said sum would come to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to finance programmes aimed at more transparent budget management and improved public service delivery.
EU Representative in Nigeria Austin Oyiwoye said this yesterday at an event to launch Anti-Corruption and Transparency Monitoring Units (ACTUs) of ICPC in Abuja.
ICPC has so far established 351 ACTUs in different ministries to serve as anti-corruption desks in various government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) but most of them are yet to function effectively due to paucity of funds.
Oyiwoye who said the money was budgeted for at a meeting the EU held in Brussels the Belgium capital hoped it would reduce corruption related vices in the country.
Dame Julie Onum-Nwariaku who explained the concept and philosophy of ACTUs said ICPC was meant to have begun running the operations of the anti-corruption desks fully since 2003 but lack of resources has hindered the objective.
Onum-Nwariaku said currently ACTUs are funded by MDAs which they are supposed to be supervising and this has raised fears of victimisation on the part of members.
She said, “It has been argued that if members are drawn from ministries, they may not challenge their bosses. But if they are independent it empowers them to carry put their duties without fear of victimisation.”
She said ICPC would establish a secretariat solely dedicated to monitoring the activities of ACTUs.
www.elombah.com