Persistent corruption and
other financial malpractices have cost Arab
countries nearly $1trillion, which otherwise
could have largely boosted the per capita income
of citizens, according to a regional
anti-corruption group.
The losses accounted for
nearly a third of the total income earned by the
Arab countries between 1950 and 2000, said the
Arab Anti-Corruption Organization (AACO), an
independent civil institution with offices in
Britain and Lebanon.
AACO made the estimates at a
rare anti-corruption conference held in Cairo
this week under the title “Towards a strategy to
combat corruption in the region.”
“The Majority of Arab
countries are suffering from corruption and
other financial offences, which have created a
weak state unable to tackle problems,” AACO
Secretary General Amer Khayyat told the
conference.
“Corruption has cost the Arab
countries $1trillion…these funds could have
increased the citizen’s income by nearly $200 a
year, supported anti-poverty efforts and allowed
the region to achieve self-sufficiency in food
and water.”
Quoted by Arabic language
newspapers in the region, Khyyat put the
combined Arab income from oil sales and other
exports at nearly $ three trillion during
1950-2000. Around $one trillion has been spent
on development projects.
“About $1trillion has been
spent on arms purchases and the rest has been
lost illegally because of widespread corruption
and other financial offences.”
Khayyat said several
financial institutions and sovereign wealth
funds in the region, some of which are among the
richest in the world, “are not subject to
auditing or any other sort of accountability
except the Kuwaiti fund.”
Another speaker at the
two-day conference said corruption in the Arab
region is prevailing in both the public and
private sectors.
“Corruption has become a
serious phenomenon that is threatening the
citizens’ life, freedom and dignity... it is
also weakening their allegiance to the nation
and increasing the state of frustration and
despair among them,” said Rifaat Faoury,
Secretary General of the Arab Organization for
Administrative Development.
“Corruption is pervading both
the public and private sectors... there should
be efforts to support the auditing and
transparency systems in the Arab countries and
to remove all political hurdles that are
preventing non-government parties from
participating in anti-corruption action... we
also call upon all regional governments to
devise clear national strategies to fight this
phenomenon.”
