165. Section 7 described the available codes and standards that African countries should strive to comply with in their quest for good economic and corporate governance. However, as was demonstrated in Section 3, compliance with good economic and corporate governance is also heavily influenced by factors related to political governance. Consequently, the measurement and observance mechanisms must also be concerned with those key elements of political governance that impact on the quality of economic and corporate governance in Africa. In that regard, any prioritizing of codes and standards for economic and corporate governance in Africa must also include some prioritizing of the political governance codes and standards that have an influence on the former.
166. However, although it may be a relatively simple matter to formulate a prioritized list of codes and standards for many countries, for Africa such an exercise will be much more complex given the diversity of the region’s countries in terms of economic development, political development, and institutional development. For example, the levels of institutional and political development in South Africa (a country that has already subjected itself to a Report on Observance of Codes and Standards) are much higher than in Zimbabwe (a country where court decisions against the government have been ignored by the said government). So the question that will then arise in each scenario is “which institutions matter, when, and under what circumstances?” As a result, the undertaking of such an exercise will certainly be fraught with controversy.
What would be a much more useful approach is to suggest those “fundamental”
internationally, regionally, and domestically accepted codes and standards that all African countries should strive to observe as consistently as possible, within their capacity capabilities. In other words, the codes and standards that ought to be complied with as a minimum requirement.
167. The fundamental aspect being referred to here is the broad consensus that permanent observance of these codes and standards will be good for the poor. The logic is that, in many African countries, those who are better off can afford to pay for the deleterious effects of bad governance (through bribery, for instance), whereas the poor are the least capable of bearing such costs. By extension, therefore, priority must be given to codes and standards, or best practices, that lead more quickly to pro-poor development outcomes. African leaders must commit to these.
168. The eradication of poverty on the continent is the ultimate goal. However, it must also be acknowledged that bad policies have led to the entrenchment of a vicious cycle, in which economic decline, reduced capacity, and poor governance reinforced each other. Today, the weak state remains a major constraint on sustainable development in a number of African countries. Indeed, one of the major challenges for Africa is to strengthen the capacity to govern and to develop long-term policies that can improve the well-being of the people in a transparent and accountable manner. Keeping all of these factors in mind, the codes and standards are prioritized as shown below. They have the potential to promote market efficiency, control wasteful spending, consolidate
democracy, and encourage private financial flows – all of which are critical aspects of the quest to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development.
169. Furthermore, and as described in the next section, we are also proposing an African Peer Review (APR) mechanism that will, among other things, assess the specific and particular capacity constraints that exist in a given African country. These are the capacity constraints which seriously hamper observance of, and/or compliance with, all of the applicable codes and standards related to all aspects of governance. Part of that APR process will be not only to determine the capacity constraints to good governance but also to make recommendations on the best way forward to remove those constraints in the shortest possible period of time.
170. With respect to political governance, we suggest that priority should be given by African countries to observing and complying with the following fundamental codes and standards, which as stated before, have a major influence on the quality of economic and corporate governance. However, these issues of political governance are being handled by a sub-committee chaired by South Africa:
• Codes of conduct for public officials (civil servants and politicians), including stipulations against accepting bribes directly or indirectly; the proscribing of abuse of powers; obligations to act and decide impartially, and to refrain from anything that could damage credibility in impartial decision-making, from accepting gifts or other benefits during the execution of official duties except for cases specified by law, and from acts that could cause any conflict of interest; controls regarding the unauthorized use of confidential information obtained in the course of performing official duties and, similarly, with respect to government property; procedures for financial transparency such as declarations of assets and property owned to prevent unlawful accumulations thereof;
• Political representation standards, including duration of terms of office for all elected officials and any limitations on re-election; laws and practices governing the free formation, registration, and growth of political parties; the independence and neutrality of electoral oversight bodies and election officials; free and fair elections; the transparency and fairness of procedures for demarcating electoral districts; tolerance for peaceful political protest;
acceptance of minority groups (such as women) in key political posts; and
• Standards on institutional effectiveness and accountability, including respect for the constitutional protection of civil, human, and political rights;
independence of legislative oversight committees; tolerance for the independence of the judiciary; respect for judicial rulings; respect for the powers and findings of other oversight agencies, such as the Ombudsman’s Office and the Anti-Corruption Directorate, in securing societal redress;
tolerance for a free and independent media; support for a meritocratic civil service; empowerment of citizens through procedures for regular consultation on issues of national importance; support for devolved responsibilities to local governments; and compliance with requests from civil society groups for information not deemed to be of a national security nature.
171. The priority codes and standards on economic and corporate governance, given the perspective described above, are suggested to be the following:
• Code of Good Practices on Transparency in Monetary and Financial Policies;
• Code of Good Practices in Fiscal Transparency;
• Best Practices for Budget Transparency;
• Guidelines for Public Debt Management;
• Principles of Corporate Governance;
• International Accounting Standards;
• International Standards on Auditing; and the
• Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision.