The founder of global corruption think tank, Mo Ibrahim, has cautioned the international community against criticising corruption in Africa without setting the right examples, insisting that Europe is hypocritical in the fight against corruption.
A recent report of the European Union on corruption revealed that corruption caused the EU economy 120 billion Euros annually, almost the size of the entire European Union budget.
Tax evasion and the use of bribery by international corporations to obtain contracts topped the list of issues discussed at a Global Corruption meeting in London organised by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House on Monday.
Mr Ibrahim called for more prosecution for ‘international corporate corruption’.
“Business has gone global, but government legislation and taxation policies are not properly implemented along that line and it creates massive loop holes that multinational companies take advantage of,” Mr Ibrahim said.
He called for international laws that would check the miss-pricing of natural resources and tax evasion of multinational corporations that had cost Africa billions of dollars at the global market
A former Kenyan government official, John Githongo, called on governments around the world to take a stand and fight corruption.
“They say Africans are corrupt and thieves. All that Africa needs to do is to mobilise this public anger into something that will cause change in both the local and the national level,” he said.
Channels Television’s correspondent in London, Doris Okenwa, says the need to redefine the narratives and ideas around tackling corruption globally was highlighted at the meeting.
She says participants highlighted the need to be less hypocritical in tackling corruption, change tactics and institute more practical and workable policies.