12 April 2019 - Civil society organisations (CSOs) gathered for a one-day roundtable to report on progress on public procurement and whistleblower protection with the intention to fast-track UNCAC's implementation.
Organised with the UNODC Corruption and Economic Crime Branch and supported by the Regional Office for Eastern Africa (ROEA) and the Ethiopian country office, the roundtable hosted in Addis Ababa heard from 18 CSOs from eight East African countries on their organization's work in each of the two anti-corruption areas.
Speaking at the opening, Jonathan Atkinson from the UK Department for International Development Ethiopia, said: "Civil society play a strategic role in preventing corruption, improving accountability and transparency, and recognise that without them, we will not be able to successfully implement the UNCAC. Roundtables like these are vital to strengthen the civil society network regionally".
The roundtable covered separately public procurement and whistleblower protection with each CSO given the opportunity to report to plenary on the status of the laws in their country, updated on their activities, and the specific challenges they faced related to each theme. Case studies were presented by Tesfaye Ayele from the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative Ethiopia (COST - Ethiopia) on public procurement and
Mohamed Sabir Jaafar Mohamed from UNODC ROEA on whistleblower protection.
During the public procurement session, Tesfaye Ayele said "A lack of prompt feasibility studies, a failure of prioritization and a lack of transparency in the full spectrum of procurement cycle are the major problems that give way to fraud and corruption in Ethiopia. CoST - Ethiopia is striving to introduce a transparent procurement system in all Federal Procuring Entities."
During the whistleblower protection session, Samuel Kimeu from Transparency International Kenya said "A cultural stigmatization of whistleblowers as snitches and betrayers is the biggest impediment. Besides the most re-known whistleblowers in Kenya have only known reprisals with no recognition. The culture can change with leadership from the highest levels that celebrates and acknowledges whistleblowers."
The roundtable was a follow-up to workshops which took place in March 2018 in Arusha, Tanzania, on the same two themes as part of the fast-tracking UNCAC implementation programme funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The CSOs who participated came from Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti and South Sudan.
Case Study Presentations
On public procurement - Construction Sector Transparency Initiative Ethiopia
On whistleblower protection - UNODC Regional Office for Eastern Africa