Corruption and financial crime in Africa were the focus of a debate held Thursday in Tunis, in the presence of experts in the field and representatives of civil society organisations active in the fight against corruption.
The event themed “Corruption, ending taboos in Africa! ” was organised by such civil society associations as “Mourakiboun” and the Tunisian Association of Controllers and Financial Officers, in partnership with the Canadian Embassy in Tunisia and the International Association of Francophone Mayors.
Speaking at the first panel, entitled “Corruption between preventive and curative”, chairman of the High Committee for Administrative and Financial Control Imed Hazgui noted that the process of fighting corruption in Tunisia has moved from the establishment of an “effective” legal framework to the application of this legal arsenal.
He said the war on corruption combines both the preventive and curative aspects, pointing to the laws adopted for this purpose including the law on corruption exposure and whistleblower protection.
The fight against corruption in Tunisia is a shared responsibility that must be supported by a “real” political will, he said in conclusion.
For his part, Canadian ambassador in Tunis, Patrice Cousineau spoke about his country’s experience in the fight against corruption, stressing the major role of civil society and the media.
“The Canadian government protects the media that denounce facts of corruption, hence the tolerance threshold against this phenomenon is increasingly low,” he added.
Speakers at the second panel on digitization as a mechanism to fight against financial crime were unanimous in stressing the need for the digitization of financial services in Africa to curb the scourge of financial crime, which is one of the main challenges facing development in Africa.
They considered, in this context, that the digitization, especially of financial services, is a solution to the bureaucratic weaknesses of a state and which are “behind the creation of a climate conducive to corruption and financial crime.
While the African Union had ratified the convention on preventing and combating corruption, along with 44 states out of a total of 55 in 2003, the “Transparency International” report classifies Africa as “the most corrupt continent in the world”.
According to the latest World Bank report on development in Africa, the amount of money transferred from Africa abroad amounts to 1.8 trillion dollars in the form of secret accounts and private investments.

Source: TAP News Agency