The Ethiopian Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission: A Critical Assessment

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Ethiopia’s specialised anti-corruption agency (ACA) figures prominently in the contemporary anti-corruption tableau.1 Ithere seems to be general agreement that a centralised, coherent and co-ordinated anti- corruption regime is superior in all aspects to a diffuse and dislocated modus operandi. Evidently, the dedicated ACA is already an item of “growing institutional imitation and isomorphism”3 and appears to enjoy widespread preference to spearhead national anti- corruption movements. By extrapolation, the international campaign against corruption is unlikely to make significant headway without the support of a worldwide corps of functioning ACAs. Needless to say, therefore, the structure and capacity of ACAs require critical evaluation and their performance constant monitoring. In 2001 Ethiopia joined the international trend by establishing an ACA in the form of the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC).4 The primary objective of the FEACC is to combat corruption “through investigation, prosecution and prevention”.5 Its establishment was motivated by the belief that “corruption and impropriety are capable of hindering the social, economic and political development” of the country,6 and that the FEACC was necessary to address the threat posed to Ethiopian development by such corruption and impropriety. Corruption