and if passed will amend the law relating to corruption, illegal payments, the trading of favours and culpable failures to act on the part of officials. • The General Directorate of Taxes (DGI) promulgated a tax code in March 2004. Both a large companies directorate and a tax centre directorate were created within the DGI, in order to simplify procedures with a view to reducing the opportunities for corruption.
Fighting corruption in transition In June 2004, in a letter to the vice presidents of the current transition regime, published in the press, President Joseph Kabila acknowledged the anxiety felt by civil society and the international community on account of the level of corruption in the country: ‘The reports of international organisations, editorials in the newspapers, complaints from the churches, reports from all sectors of the population, show the persistence, if not the resurgence, of corruption and the misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds in all sectors of national life. The leaders of the people cannot be indifferent to this state of affairs.’ If the number of speeches were a measure of change, there would be real hope for the fight against corruption in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Some observers believe that the government’s statements on corruption have been given force by exposures in 2003–04 of financial scandals perpetrated by leaders of stateowned companies and even members of the government.1 However, many observers are questioning the significance of the government’s stated good intentions. One of the distinguishing features of the DRC as a country undergoing reconstruction after years of war, is that the people who in the past played a part in the embezzlement and plundering of resources are now in power, thanks to the inter-Congolese negotiations which gave rise to the transition regime. The fear of seeing the precarious political equilibrium collapse inhibits initiatives that might be taken to eliminate corruption and related offences.2 Furthermore, the plundering of natural resources, which was condemned by
a UN inquiry, is still ongoing according to many reports. The loss of resources provides the income that keeps the troubles and the war alive. To respond to the critics, President Kabila has invited parliamentary commissions to take on the role of monitoring the government and in particular state-owned companies. Following the invitation, the CELC organised a seminar for the managers of state-owned companies in June 2004. It also drew up a strategic plan to fight corruption in the DRC and initiated radio and television programmes intended to increase public awareness of the problem. If change is to take place, both legal and institutional reforms are required. Initial steps towards public administration reform are being taken, following recommendations made during a World Bank seminar on good governance and the fight against corruption in September 2002. Full reform of the public administration will involve requiring certain officials to retire, carrying out a census of the workforce and eliminating fictitious employees, training officials, creating a civil service college, creating a school for judges and law officers, making the public servants’ code of conduct more understandable to the general public, and increasing government officials’ salaries. Judicial reform is also needed. From October 2003 to March 2004, a multidisciplinary team of consultants carried out an audit of the judicial system in order to identify specific support needs. Since 2003 the NGO Justice and Democracy has been organising training for police officers from the national police force in partnership with the ministry of the interior. The trained officers are monitored on a regular basis. It is also organising
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