Sudan to fight corruption

President Omar Al Bashir laid-out the guidelines of a reform plan to the Council of Ministers on Sunday, directing the Ministers to fight corruption and uphold the principle of accountability. At an emergency session of the cabinet in Khartoum, the Sudanese President presented the guidelines of an anti-corruption reform plan. A higher committee will be established, consisting of five sub-committees, to implement the reform plan. The subcommittees are to hold weekly meetings, while the higher committee will hold bi-monthly meetings and submit quarterly evaluation reports. Al Bashir stressed the importance of equal distribution of wealth and power between the country’s centre and the peripheries through a balanced development, and the restoration of security and stability in Darfur, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile. He called upon the people of Sudan to renounce tribalism and regionalism. Sudan was ranked at 174 out of the 177 countries in the corruption index released by Transparency International in December 2013. The country scored particularly low in the transparency of key national budget documents. File photo: A view of Khartoum’s airportRelated: ‘Corruption in Finance Ministry cause of sanctions on Sudan’: Adel Abdel Aziz (20 March 2014)