What do twelve business journos from Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Nigeria and South Africa who converged on Johannesburg's Institute for the Advancement of Journalism on Monday have in common? Surprisingly, quite a lot. Apart from sharing an almost universal preference for meat over vegetarianism and Brad Pitt over George Clooney (as a get-to-know-you activity revealed), they would be sharing a training room for the next five days in a quest to learn more about all things finance and corporate-governance related.
During that time, former Financial Times business editor David White and South Africa's National Treasury spokesperson Jabulani Sikhakhane would "facilitate" discussions and learning about topics ranging from tax to reporting on public accounts to the growing phenomenon of profit shifting. (The inverted commas are only used out of sensibility for David's apparent disdain for the title of facilitator. Both were, in fact masterful in their roles, and highly undeserving of any punctuation mark that may insinuate otherwise).
Between impromptu one-minute "radio" introductions of trainees, and trying their hands at seamlessly interweaving truths and lies politician-style, the group was visited by Mari-Lise du Preez, a programme manager from the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). The diffident head of SAIIA's Governance of Africa's Resources Programme shared some some startling facts about the magnitude of illicit financial flows globally.
Quoting a May report by research organisation Global Financial Integrity and the African Development Bank, Mari-Lise said that in 2012 alone, the African continent lost between $43 and $46-billion in illicit financial flows. This money that had been either illegally earned, transferred or spent outstripped the amount of money Africa received in official development assistance by a factor of almost three to one over the past thirty years, she said. These clandestine transactions were made possible by two conditions: "opacity" in the global financial system and weak governance and corruption in the countries from which the money is sourced, she said.
On the topic of governance, Jabulani stepped in to share some pointers around what to look for when reporting on public spending. Two important indicators for financial journalists, said Jabulani, are scrutinising a country's tax revenue as a percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP), and looking at the country's budget as a percentage of its GDP. These indicators give one a sense of the country's ability to pay its debt, and the debt burden the country could be imposing on future generations.
Another important exercise for journos in their "watchdog" function is to determine whether money is being spent on what it has been earmarked for. Jabulani suggested developing local contacts who can help journos keep tabs on whether undertakings by governments are being realised. "If a [department] says it will build a clinic, halfway into the year is it actually being built?" he said. "Your contacts can send you photos every two weeks [of the building grounds] for you to determine progress. And if there isn't any, why not?"
Poignant thoughts and ideas to prompt the beginning of what looks to be a full and interesting week.
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