[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 106 (Wednesday, July 15, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S7551]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     COMBATING CORRUPTION IN AFRICA

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as the world goes through this difficult 
economic period it is important that we continue efforts that began 
when times were better.
  A June 10, 2009 article in the New York Times entitled ``Battle to 
Halt Graft Scourge in Africa Ebbs'' notes that because of a series of 
assassinations, dismissals, and changes in power across the African 
Continent, some of Africa's previous efforts to fight corruption are 
weakening. It is estimated that a trillion dollars obtained through 
corrupt practices changes hands every year around the world, and a 
large part of it in Africa. This staggering amount is often the 
revenues from the extraction of natural resources like oil or diamonds, 
but instead of going to help the impoverished people of the country 
where the resources are located, it too often goes to line the pockets 
of corrupt officials. If it were possible to reduce by just one-quarter 
the amount of money stolen, the amount saved would be five times as 
much as we spend annually on foreign aid.
  On his recent visit to Accra, Ghana, President Obama made it clear 
that the responsibility for good government and with it, development, 
in Africa ultimately rests on the shoulders of Africans. He said 
``repression can take many forms, and too many nations, even those that 
have elections, are plagued by problems that condemn their people to 
poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit 
the economy to enrich themselves . . . or if police can be bought off 
by drug traffickers. No business wants to invest in a place where the 
government skims twenty percent off the top . . . or the head of the 
port authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where 
the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is 
not democracy, that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an 
election in there. And now is the time for that style of governance to 
end.''
  I wholeheartedly agree with the President, and I also know that 
bribery depends on at least two parties--those who get paid and those 
who pay. Halliburton/KBR, a name we have all become familiar with for 
brazenly overcharging American taxpayers in Iraq, is reportedly under 
investigation for allegedly paying over $100 million in bribes in 
Nigeria in order to secure oilfield contracts. Although we do our best 
to investigate terrorist financing, U.S. banks are not required to 
fully investigate the sources of their funds, and the proceeds of 
corruption can sometimes get through. Offshore shell companies and bank 
accounts, and lax rules for identification of account holders, make it 
relatively easy to launder illicit money. The lack of information 
across borders hampers investigations and prosecution efforts and slows 
the return of stolen money.
  The New York Times article tells the story of Nuhu Ribadu, the former 
director of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Nigeria, 
who led a courageous effort to begin to rid Nigeria of its endemic 
corruption problem but barely avoided an assassination attempt and was 
dismissed last year after reportedly refusing a $15 million bribe from 
a state official he was investigating. In testimony before the House 
Financial Services Committee earlier this year, Mr. Ribadu pleaded that 
this country do all that it can to fight this global problem saying, 
``What can you do as a country, as a good people of the world, as 
leaders, to help be on the side of the 140 million desperately poor 
Nigerians?''
  While there is no question that this is a problem that requires the 
hard work and sacrifice of citizens of the countries where these crimes 
are taking place, we also need to do what we can in the United States 
to stand with those people who are taking risks to rid their countries 
of the corruption that destroys governments and whole societies.
  There are a few things we can start doing now. We can do more to hold 
our domestic banks accountable for the money they have. We can put 
regulations in place that will make the holding of illegal 
international money no longer a profitable enterprise. We can open up 
international channels of communication to make sure that, while 
maintaining appropriate levels of privacy, we provide investigators 
overseas access to the records they need to track down and prosecute 
cases of graft in their countries. We should do all we can to prosecute 
those who receive bribes by cutting off funds and, as much is possible, 
expanding our courts' jurisdictions to prosecute those who extort 
money. And finally, we can come down hard on companies in the United 
States that are using bribery to increase their profitability in third 
world markets.
  This is a problem that many brave Africans have tried to tackle head 
on, and it has cost some of them their lives. Let us make sure that we 
are doing all we can to help.

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