Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has claimed the ruling Prosperity Party (PP) doesn’t suffer from institutional corruption.
Abiy made the claim during a nearly one and half hour presentation made to high level government officials broadcast across Ethiopia state media outlets over the weekend.
“I can tell you for sure there is no institutional corruption in Prosperity, period. If there was one we wouldn’t have been able to do all this activity, is there thievery? Yes petty theft has to be corrected, its dangerous, it makes people cry and be miserable,” Abiy said.
The PM’s latest statement on corruption in his administration is seemingly in contradiction to multiple statements he has made in the recent past, including last November in his last parliament address decrying widespread corruption in the country.
PM Abiy has also encouraged on several occasions journalists to investigate corrupt practices in the country, though for many journalists that encouragement is a hollow promise, as critical and non-state aligned journalists are regularly harassed and detained by security forces.
Few days after the November PM parliament address, Abiy’s administration announced the formation of a National Anti-Corruption Committee (NACC), which has so far announced the arrest of few mid to lower level government officials. Regional administrations have in recent weeks also announced the formation of their own respective anti-corruption committees.
This is while, Ethiopia has its own Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission formed in 2001 which is still legally functional.
The PM has himself been subject to criticism by many Ethiopians online over his frequent statements about opaque pet grand projects and his refusal to have public scrutiny over the source of the funds.
This includes a “Satellite city” project in Addis Ababa which will cost up to 500 billion birr (9.33 billion U.S. dollars) which the PM disclosed last November.
In what maybe a sign of his frustration with political and economic instability in Ethiopia, the PM stated “when political marketplace is damaged, the job of leaders who lead change will be babysitting,”.
