![]() As a result, OFAC can effectively cut off entities from the international financial system. OFAC has a truly global reach: given the US dollar’s global primacy, the vast majority of international financial transactions touch the US financial system. Stealing, diverting, or obstructing resources meant for the Covid-19 response would fall neatly into this category. In the United States, the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act gives the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) the authority to impose sanctions on anyone who engages in public-sector corruption. Fortunately, mechanisms for doling out such punishments already exist: an array of tried-and-true financial policies by governments, multilateral institutions, and banks around the world. If action is not taken soon, many African countries may face sharply higher death rates, not only from Covid-19, but also from inadequate economic support and social protections.Īvoiding this outcome hinges on the credible threat of punishment for anyone caught stealing funds or otherwise disrupting Covid-19 response efforts for their own gain. This may be all the more true during the Covid-19 crisis, because movement restrictions and office closures have hamstrung the anti-corruption work of oversight bodies, activists, and the press. For them, stealing money meant for vulnerable populations is business as usual, and, given their powerful connections, punishment is often the furthest thing from their minds. Most corrupt officials and business leaders, however, never see the inside of a prison cell. In late March, a former health minister in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was sentenced to five years of forced labour for embezzling more than $400,000 from the DRC’s funds earmarked for responding to Ebola. Foreign-aid disbursements have been diverted to private accounts. Government procurement contracts have been manipulated and misused. Such losses are prevalent in many African countries, where senior government officials and their international collaborators have used public policy and resources to enrich themselves.ĭonated medicines intended for the poor have been stolen and resold for profit. ![]() Yet, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, up to 25% of global procurement funding is lost to corruption. Billions of aid dollars will be allocated to Africa. ![]() The World Bank Group is making available a package of up to $12 billion in immediate support to assist developing countries in coping with the outbreak. The International Monetary Fund has suspended 25 (mostly African) countries’ debt payments for the next six months. The international community is stepping up to help Africa fight the pandemic. But another major obstacle to effective Covid-19 responses is being largely overlooked: widespread corruption. And over 18 million people are refugees or internally displaced, leaving them especially vulnerable. Food supplies are unstable, and have already suffered major disruptions. Health-care systems are weak and overburdened, with ten African countries reportedly having no ventilators at all. Photo: CDC Global (Flickr)Ĭovid-19 is a ticking time bomb in Africa. ![]() The main entrance to Kagadi Hospital, Kibaale District, in August 2012. ![]()
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