Ethics Newsline®

VARIOUS DATELINES
The intersection of economics and ethics in developing nations across Africa was the subject of several stories from the world press last week:

• A new survey by an anticorruption group based in Kenya says that fighting graft is the biggest concern among voters there amid the run-up to presidential and legislative elections on December 27. Reporting from Nairobi, the Voice of America says corruption is a larger concern than poverty, unemployment, or taxes among the 2,400 Kenyans who responded to the poll, which was conducted by the Africa Center for Open Governance. Some Kenyans interviewed for the piece maintained that corruption is the root cause of poverty there and must be eradicated before the economy can grow.
• The speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives and her aide resigned last week in the wake of a corruption scandal that has brought the government there to a standstill. Reuters Africa reports that an internal investigation last month concluded that House speaker Patricia Etteh and her deputy Babangida Nguroje violated House rules by awarding contacts worth $5 million for the renovation of their official residences and for a fleet of cars. According to the Reuters report, the House of Representatives has been unable to debate a single piece of legislation since June because it has been consumed with the contracts controversy.
• Sierra Leone’s newly elected president tells the BBC that he will crack down on corruption. Ernest Bai Koroma won the first election since the withdrawal of United Nations peacekeepers after a decadelong civil war. He told the BBC: “If assets of public officials are declared and at the end of their term of service there is a substantial increase, you should give an account of how you are able to increase your assets. I’m not saying that nobody should increase their assets, but when it goes beyond magical proportions then an explanation should be given.” According to the report, rampant corruption in Sierra Leone has fueled poverty and conflict for decades. Koroma campaigned on an anticorruption platform.