In the Congo Brazzaville, corruption is fought at different levels of social and institutional life by local governments and international agencies. In 2009, the Congolese government initiated a national plan to fight against corruption and fraud. The implementation of this plan has strengthened good governance in the country. As a good mark for its good management, the Congo reached in January 2010 the completion point under the Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), which allowed it to benefit from enormous debt cancellation.
As part of the celebration of the World Day of Fight against Corruption, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has initiated a contest for young people to raise awareness on this subject. An initiative supported by governments of the countries that are trying to clean up the procurement of governement contracts.
Making the Congolese youth aware of the problems created by corruption
On 18 February, at the Faculty of Letters, the UNDP’s agency based in the Congo made official the results of the competition for pupils and distributed its rewards (one year of Internet connection, one year subscription to Reading French Cultural Centre, a batch of the UN documentation and a certificate of participation).
The UNDP has also raised awareness of the hundreds of students at the convention on the fight against corruption. Comedy and drama plays, which were presented to students, illustrated the possibilities of stigmatizing corruption, fraud and embezzlement. The UN agency has already conducted seminars supporting women leaders, local elected women, parliamentarians and civil society actors on this issue.
“There is corruption in rich countries as there is corruption in poor countries. There is the evidence, however, that corruption hits the poor disproportionately. It hinders efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which were agreed at the international level,” states a press release by the UNDP, published in Brazzaville on the World Day of fight against corruption.
Cleaning up the procurement of government contracts and the Congo’s debt cancellation
Two bodies have been created by the Congolese government to fight against corruption. The National Commission for fight against corruption is responsible for investigations, including the implementation of the government’s policy in the fight against this scourge. The Congolese Observatory for the fight against corruption, meanwhile, monitors and evaluates the efforts made by the Government in this context.
The Congo has created legal basis for effective action against corruption, which did not exist before. The observatory then undertook a lot of work to determine the causes of this scourge in the country. Following this study, the government made a plan to fight against corruption, which was presented to the population thanks to the media. The Observatory has adopted the code of procurement of the state to clean up the procurement of government contracts, which served as a nest of corruption.
All these efforts are now bearing fruit. The country has the confidence of international donors. The Paris Club has confirmed the cancellation of 3,000 billion debt of the Congo. The amount represents the entire debt of the Congo towards creditors grouped in the Paris Club, since the country reached in January 2010 the completion point under the Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries ( HIPC).