The 30th African Union Summit which will kick-off today in Addis Ababa is to discuss, among other issues, the fight against corruption.
Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation - which is the theme of the summit - is what all Africans need these days.
There were very successful stories on the fight against corruption in some African countries e.g. Rwanda.
The African governments are in need to rein the corruption phenomenon which became a daily practice while the corrupt persons enjoy their lives due to the weak laws a matter that makes those corrupt escape any punishment.
Sudan has already started practical steps in this issue represented by the formation of the National Commission of Transparency, besides tabling the integrity and anti-corruption act before the parliament for deliberation and endorsement.
We believe that the endorsement of the law represents a leap towards combating corruption or at least scaling down its spread.
It goes without saying that completing the anti-corruption system is the only guarantee for Sudan to be within the states that have achieved progress in this dossier.
Writing-off the foreign debts, and lifting the economic and technical embargo could only be achieved if Sudan is classified among the states that have achieved progress in anti-corruption course like what happened in 2015 when Sudan was recognized as achieving some progress in this regard.
According to experts, the articles included in the act are enough to deter the criminals, thus scale down the cases of corruption.
The endorsement of the legislations meets the requirement of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), and this will automatically improve the rank of Sudan in the Corruption Perceptions Index.
Setting the legislation and regulations along with applying it will send a message to the Transparency International and other organizations that the legal environment to tackle the defects is now available.
Without doing this the negative reports will continue and will affect all the states dealing with Sudan considering that they read the International Transparency reports which is believed to be credible.
Let us hope that the African leaders manage to agree on a mechanism to be adapted by all state members to translate the theme of the summit on the ground.