Anti-Corruption Committees in all ministerial departments
Extension of the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) pilot in all ministerial departments: write a report on the activities of the ACCs during the first half of 2019 and propose the extension of the ACC, starting in January 2020.
Completion Status:
Commitment filtering:
In 2012, the Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Development established an Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) to address corruption within its structures and central directorates.[1] In this commitment, the government sought to extend this experience to other governmental ministries. The commitment is specific in identifying the ACCs as a concrete anti-corruption mechanism to be implemented in different ministries.
[1] Annex 2.
This commitment is measurable because it identifies two clear actions:
- Writing a report on the activities of the ACCs during the first half of 2019.
- Setting up ACCs in all government ministries, starting in January 2020.
Burkina Faso
Evaluation:
Background Information
This commitment adds to an existing initiative. In 2012, the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Development established an ACC within its structures and central departments.[1] The ACCs consist of representatives of staff, trade unions and the administration. According to Burkina Faso’s government information service (Service d’Information du Gouvernement). The committees are responsible for raising staff awareness of corruption; processing and forwarding proven complaints of corruption to the competent structures, and formulating recommendations likely to improve anti-corruption measures.[2] In July 2015, the Ministry of Development of the Digital Economy and Posts[3] and in 2018, the Ministry of Justice also established ACCs.[4] On this basis, the government sought to extend the ACC model to all other ministries.
Monitoring
The commitment includes the following two sub-commitments:
- Writing a report on the activities of the ACC during the first half of 2019.
The Ministry of Economy, Finance and Development has not yet written the report on the ACC, as promised in Burkina Faso’s 2018 commitments. Even with further research based on the latest 2019 ASCE-LC report,[5] there was no mention of ACC activity. In an email response, ASCE-LC’s Head of Department for Corruption Prevention stated that the agency maintains a good relationship with the ACCs, as it regularly carries out capacity building with them. He also suggested that the General Inspectorate of Finance and the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Development could provide information on the reports. However, no response from the ministry was received for this report.
- Setting up anti-corruption committees in all other government ministries, starting in January 2020.
ACCs have not been set up in all other government ministerial departments. According to REN-LAC, only the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Development, and the Treasury and Tax Offices under its supervision, have established ACCs.[6] However the ministry did not respond to further requests for evidence on these ACCs.
Therefore, this commitment is considered not fulfilled.
| Challenges to effective commitment implementation |
| The Ministry of Economy, Finance and Development and ASCE-LC have not given any reason for the delay or cancelling of the report. However, a possible challenge in the effective implementation of this commitment could be the limited resources of the ministry, which supervises the ACCs. Burkina Faso being a low-income country,[7] the ministry may often have limited resources for implementing its projects.
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| Opportunities to accelerate commitment implementation |
| A possible opportunity to accelerate implementation of the commitment is to seek more funding from international donors, which have specific interest in funding anti-corruption initiatives in the West Africa region.[8]
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| Recommendations |
| Analyse and write a report on the impact of existing ACCs. The report should highlight implementation challenges and how other ministries can overcome them, and should be accessible via the Ministry of Finance website.
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[1] Annex 2.
[2] Burkina Faso 24, Ministry of Justice: A committee to fight against corruption, 18 January 2018, https://burkina24.com/2018/01/18/ministere-de-la-justice-un-comite-pour-lutter-contre-la-corruption/
[3] Burkina Faso Government Information Service, Fight against corruption: The Ministry of Development, Digital Economy and Posts sets up anti-corruption committees , 4 August 2015, https://www.sig.bf/2015/08/lutte-contre-la-corruption-le-ministere-du-developpement-de-leconomie-numerique-et-des-postes-se-dote-de-comites-anti-corruption/
[4] Burkina Faso 24, Ministry of Justice: A committee to fight against corruption, 18 January 2018, https://burkina24.com/2018/01/18/ministere-de-la-justice-un-comite-pour-lutter-contre-la-corruption/
[5] ASCE-LC, Activity Report 2022, https://www.asce-lc.bf/index.php/documentations/rapports-d-activites
[6] Sinon Harouna, Programme Manager, Réseau National de Lutte Anti-Corruption (REN-LAC), April 14 2022, Interview via WhatsApp.
[7] World Bank, The World Bank in Burkina Faso, 13 April 2022, https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/burkinafaso/overview
[8] UNODC, Burkina Faso aims to strengthen its anti-corruption institution, July 2015, https://www.unodc.org/westandcentralafrica/fr/burkina-faso-strengthens-asce.html