Madagascar: controversy over the reduction of the powers of the Anti-corruption pole

Text by: Laetitia Bezain Follow

In Madagascar, the Anti-Corruption Pole (PAC) finds itself weakened. Late in the evening of Friday 3 July, the deputies voted and discreetly adopted a proposal to modify the law on anti-corruption poles. The adopted text reduces the fields of competence of this special jurisdiction, set up to deal with cases of grand corruption.

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If the text of this proposal is adopted as it stands by the Senate, the PAC will no longer be able, among other things, to investigate economic and financial offenses. However, these offenses very often go hand in hand with corruption.

Thus, these changes to the law worry the magistrates of the Anti-Corruption Center as well as civil society. "  We are witnessing a unraveling of one of the founding texts, in the fight against corruption,  " she denounces.

"  Fostering decentralized and local justice in economic and financial offenses and relieving the workload of magistrates of the Anti-corruption pole  ", this is how the independent deputy, Idéalson, support of power, justifies this text that 'he proposed to the National Assembly. For the moment, only the Anti-corruption pole located in Antananarivo judges these cases, the poles of the other regions have not yet been set up.

“  In this bill, we have decided to remove this competence over economic and financial offenses from the Anti-Corruption Center and give it back, to be decided by the courts of common law, as before. This also slows down the processing of files because only one jurisdiction, in Antananarivo, to deal with the 25 million Malagasy in terms of economic crimes, it is considered too unfair for most of the population living in distant localities. It is not good to criticize by saying " He is a member of parliament… there are shenanigans behind all this". No ! I do not do that for myself but for the Republic of Madagascar  ”, explains the parliamentarian elected in the district of Ampanihy, in the south of the country.

The criticisms emanate in particular from the civil society which had alerted, Thursday, July 2, on the lack of concertation before the presentation of this text to the National Assembly.

"  It can't be done like that, in a hurry." However, it was adopted almost without debate and we are dismayed,  ”reacts Ketakandriana Rafitoson, executive director of the Transparency International Initiative Madagascar.

"  The government declares that the fight against corruption is its priority, but in reality everything contradicts its statements. We do not believe for a second that it is this member who is behind these changes. One wonders who the regime wants to protect? It is total misunderstanding. We are going backwards with this reform,  ”she continues.

The proposed amendment to the law removes around twenty offenses from the powers of the Anti-Corruption Center and this also worries the main parties concerned. Harimahefa Ratiarisoa is the coordinator of this specialized court.

“  It is really taking away from the PAC its vocation to fight corruption and financial crimes. If we delete this whole list of offenses including customs offenses, drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings, tax offenses, etc., what is the Anti Pole -corruption would have to judge? Just petty offenses made, for example, by police officers? I don't know, but the vocation of the Anti-Corruption Poles is to fight major crimes in financial and economic matters at the same time, given that behind economic crimes, there is often corruption  ”, details- she.

The text adopted at the National Assembly also eliminates the confiscation, before judgment, of property acquired in a suspicious manner.

"  It went against one of the sacrosanct principles which is the presumption of innocence  ", justifies the deputy and magistrate of Idéalson career.

"  We know very well that in Madagascar, because of political protection and corruption, there will never be a final decision that will condemn a big cap,  " said the executive director of Transparency International.  

This bill also reduces the term of anti-corruption pole officials, magistrates and clerks to three years, renewable once, instead of four years.

“  We are already two years away from the establishment of anti-corruption poles. So at the end of this year, they can already be thanked with this change in law. It creates instability and discomfort in the current cluster  , "concludes Ketakandriana Rafitoson, coordinator of the Anti-Corruption Cluster.

Madagascar is 158th out of 180 countries in the world, in the latest ranking of the corruption perception index established by Transparency International.

Read also: Madagascar: a new director for the Independent Anti-Corruption Bureau

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