Survey ranks EACC second best in evidence handling among 17 African Commonwealth anti-graft agencies

Kenya's anti-corruption agency is the best in handling evidence and managing exhibits in Commonwealth Africa.

The findings are contained in a research by the Commonwealth and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The survey conducted between June 2015 and June 2016 also ranked the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) high among 17 such agencies as far as overall compliance is concerned.

Against 25 key policy and procedure inputs, EACC was ranked second on compliance with a score of 63.2 per cent after South Africa, which scored 71.7 per cent.

KEY POLICY

During the research, evidence management, continuity, handling and chain of custody were singled out as the key policy and procedure inputs for Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Agencies (ACAs).

EACC was also the overall best on compliance of oath of office, code of ethics, mission statement and system of policy and procedure with a score of 100 per cent.

The EACC scored 100 per cent in the category of Mutual Legal Assistance compliance. The research found the agency ensures persons assigned to receive and submit requests for Mutual Legal Assistance have the skills and competences required for their duties.

ANY SCORE

Only Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe scored 50 per cent on Legal Mutual Assistance while the rest did not earn any score.

The Kenyan agency was also ranked the best, with Botswana leading in policy and procedure in ensuring information and intelligence collected or obtained from human sources is stored in a secure manner and shared only with authorised recipients and exchanged in a timely fashion.

The study was meant to provide Commonwealth Africa anti-corruption agencies with a bench-marking tool and identify gaps in policy and procedures.