United Nations ranks EACC top in Africa

Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman Rtd Archbishop Eliud Wabukala. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • On operational management, Kenya and Sierra Leone were ranked first with a score of 80 per cent followed by Uganda at 73.3 per cent.
  • Sierra Leone was second with a score of 87.5 per cent followed by Uganda (75 per cent).

Kenya’s anti-graft agency has been ranked top in Africa.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission scored highly in evidence handling and management of evidence when compared with 17 other agencies in the continent.

It also topped compliance to oath of office, code of ethics, mission statement and system of policy and procedure.

MAXIMUM SCORE

The ranking follows a study conducted between June 2015 and June 2016 by the Commonwealth and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The study looked at evidence management, continuity, handling and chain of custody in ranking Commonwealth Africa agencies.

“The Commission scored 100 per cent on the area of mutual legal assistance compliance,” EACC spokesman Yassin Amaro said.

“Only Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe scored 50 per cent on mutual legal assistance; the rest did not earn any score.”

Agencies from Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Lesotho, South Africa, Sierra Leone, and Malawi were also studied.

RESEARCH STAGES

On operational management, Kenya and Sierra Leone were ranked first with a score of 80 per cent followed by Uganda at 73.3 per cent.

Kenya was first on compliance of oath of office, code of ethics, mission statement and system of policy and procedure.

Sierra Leone was second with a score of 87.5 per cent followed by Uganda (75 per cent).

“The research was conducted in two stages. The first was a visit to ACAs while in the second stage, researchers from Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre (CAAC) administered the questionnaire to the ACAs. The ACAs were asked a total of 127 questions,” Mr Amaro added.