Anti-corruption in developing countries

Corruption decreases the amount of money that can be used to reduce poverty and promote economic growth.

Poor people are often the hardest hit by corruption when government spending is diverted away from social programs and services, or when bribes are required to access key services.

Corruption hinders economic development

Countries with a lot of corruption often have economies that are struggling to grow. Corruption hinders economic development in part because it prevents foreign and domestic investment. It also means key services may not be delivered to the population. As a result the resources raised domestically may not be put back into the public domain for the good of the population. 

By its very nature corruption is difficult to combat. This is because the people that have the power to end corruption can be the ones benefitting from the corrupt system. However, it is possible to tackle corruption by:

• working with motivated leaders
• addressing key areas like health and education service delivery, or the development of natural resources
• establishing accountability through oversight systems and transparent decision-making
• strengthening the accountability function of civil society and an independent media
• supporting the role of parliaments and supreme audit institutions to monitor government performance
• appointing a public service based on merit and competitive recruitment
• simplifying tax systems, reducing red tape and eliminating unnecessary regulation

Building anti-corruption capacity

In Senegal, Canada provides support to the new national anti-corruption office (OFNAC) to allow the country to better identify and address cases of corruption. Canada has also provided support to the Senegalese supreme audit institution (Cour des comptes). This helps to strengthen its capacity to investigate and apply decisions, and to implement standardized procedures that allow more timely and effective audit processing.