Statement by Vera Songwe: theme: “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation”: draft

Abstract

Corruption in public expenditure management affects the quality of outcomes in social services. Transparency International estimates that half of school children do not complete primary school in countries where bribery is common. In the poorest countries, one out of every two people pays a bribe to access basic services like education, health and water. A recent ECA report on corruption in public procurement notes that corruption affects around 70 percent of public procurement contracts in Africa, and inflates the cost of contracts by about 20 percent to 30 percent. Winning the fight against corruption is indeed, a sustainable path to Africa’s transformation as the very befitting theme for this Summit rightly suggests. Corruption is an age-old, worldwide phenomenon, whose costs and implications are multidimensional and substantial. Thus, we should be conscious that the continent would not be able to leverage the transformation opportunities promised by various regional and global development frameworks if the plague of corruption continues to hold sway.