Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Loan to Fight Corruption -Huh?

The World Bank' World Bank said on Wednesday it had approved a $25 million loan for Kenya's fight against corruption, but urged authorities to discipline ministers linked to a graft scandal that widened this week.

"The anti-corruption loan will go to the agriculture, trade, finance, planning and local government ministries to strengthen financial management and auditing of public funds to improve transparency and accountability in government expenditure"

Am I the only who do not get the sense of why we need a$25 Million to fight corruption? Exactly why are we getting a loan that we shall pay hefty interest on, to fight something when we already know who the culprits are and how they do it?.


What education does one need to catch a thieve? or what kind of equipment or mechanism that are not in place that we need to get a billion for?and then have to pay it back. Will this be a guarantee that there will be no more corruption after the billion is spent ?

Does this make sense ? Isn't this a simple matter of proper bookkeeping and audit trails to ensure transparency and accountability? What kind of accounting/financial softwares and human resources ( CPAs, CMAs CFA, Audit Committee) do we need to monitor these ministries. Question is, how were the finances of these ministries monitored before? Were they not in place in the first place, only that they have not been utilized properly ?

Should we be burying ourselves in more debt?

Please someone , help me get this?

1 comment:

irena said...

cUTE: At times I do not understand why world bank would give such a hefty anmount to be used for that purpose when there other urgent areas that those funds can be utilized in.For instance, how about fund a sustainable development project in North Eastern Kenya and spearhead(monitor the funding) without giving money directly to the ministry itself.