05 November 2007
Manama: Arab countries are planning to set up an index to measure the prevalence and cost of corruption in the Arab world, a senior member of the Parliamentarians Against Corruption has said.
"The board is currently drafting an Arab index that would measure graft based on criteria prepared by the organisation and with assistance from Arab and international experts," Nasser Al Sane, the vice-president of the organisation said here at the end of a two-day conference.
The Kuwaiti MP who chairs the Arab Parliamentarians Against Corruption said that the index would be the core of an Arab parliamentarian centre for data against corruption.
"The organisation will prepare a detailed study of corruption in every Arab country. We really need to ask serious questions about what happened in 2007 and whether 2008 will be even darker," Al Sane said. "We really have heavy responsibilities to confront this monster that has swallowed up our resources for the benefit of a group of powerful people and denied us opportunities to spend money to promote development and fight poverty, illiteracy and unemployment," he said.
Fighting menace
For the MP, Arab parliamentarians have a significant role in the drive against corruption, but he stressed that the organisation could not fight corruption directly.
"We seek to build the right environment for every MP who is honest and serious about fighting corruption by providing training, support and leadership," he said.
Al Sane added that the organisation was not the only body aiming to fight corruption, saying that good citizens, officials, civil society organisations, political parties, parliamentarian blocs and activists also had significant roles to play.
Transparency International (TI), a Berlin-based anti-corruption organisation, in its latest annual report in October said that corruption and lack of transparency still constituted a very important challenge for the development of the Middle East.
Last month, Bahrain said that it was taking strong measures to fight financial mismanagement under an initiative led by Crown Prince Shaikh Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa who pledged a zero-tolerance policy against sleaze in all ministries, organisations and state-owned companies, stressing that no minister would escape justice.
On October 30, MPs voted to create a new authority to combat corruption in Bahrain.
By Habib Toumi
Gulf News 2007. All rights reserved.
