ADDIS ABABA – The Federal Ethics and Anti–Corruption Commission (FEACC) announced that it has been reforming itself through amending Commission’s establishment and assets registration proclamations to align it with global anti corruption coalition.
Commissioner Ayehelegne Mulualem said that the Commission, including reshuffling its executive bodies, has undertaken internal structural change so as to substitute the former executives with qualified bodies. As to him, though it was established 18 years ago, the Commission could not register substantial achievement in terms of reducing the corruption because of its structure and working processes.
The current organizational structure is expected to bring about tangible result in this regard, he added. The reform embarked on at national level has been contributing a lot to amend the civil society law, media law and undertakings to create independent justice system, he reflected. Mentioning that creating independent justice system is a crucial issue to reduce corruption, the Commission said that currently the appointment of neutral attorney general to control criminal cases has a great advantage to reduce corruption in the country.
The measures taken by the government to encourage press freedom in the country is also the other supportive mechanism to reduce the corruption related problems, he explained. He stressed that even if the shifting of government officials from position to position leads to the complexity of registering their wealth, the Commission will continue registering by using a digital technology.
And the drafted proclamation on wealth registration of government official is a supportive instrument to reduce the problem as it allows punishment of officials who fail to do so. “Before nine months, through checking the resource of 24 government officials, the commission provided a case of one government official to court.”
He further noted that as democratic institutions have immeasurable roles to reduce the corruption, the commission has been boosting the participation of these institutions.
The Ethiopian Herald, May 8/2019
BY TAMERU REGASA
