Corruption in Angola

Corruption in Angola is a pervasive and often lethal phenomenon, hindering economic growth and government-sponsored liberalization programs. Levels are said to be owing “to a lack of checks and balances, insufficient institutional capacity and a culture of impunity.”

A 2010 report described Angola as facing serious corruption problems across every level of society after roughly thirty years of instability and violence. This corruption takes a variety of forms, from graft, money laundering and embezzlement, to “systematic looting of state assets” and a deep-rooted patronage system. Corruption and mismanagement are especially prevalent in the extractive industries.

In 2015, a video report by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times stated that despite Angola's extraordinary oil wealth, the systematic confiscation of that wealth by members of a “spectacularly corrupt” elite with lavish lifestyles was keeping people in grinding poverty, depriving children of proper education and health care, and causing the world's highest child-mortality rate. Angola, said Kristof, is “the deadliest country in the world for kids and yet the government has just cut the health budget by 30%.” He called on Western governments that provide aid to Angola and do business with it to take forceful action to end the country's endemic corruption.

In 2006 Transparency International ranked Angola 142 out of 163 countries in the Corruption Perception Index just after Venezuela and before the Republic of the Congo with a 2.2 rating. In 2010, Angola was at 168th place (out of 178 countries) on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), receiving a 1.9 on a scale from 0 to 10. On the World Bank's 2009 Worldwide Governance Index, Angola did very poorly on all six aspects of governance assessed. While its score for political stability improved to 35.8 in 2009 (on a 100-point scale) from 19.2 in 2004, Angola earned especially low scores for accountability, regulatory standards, and rule of law. The score for corruption declined from an extremely low 6.3 in 2004 to 5.2 in 2009.

Angola was ranked 161st out of 179 countries on the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, which labeled Angola the seventh least free economy in sub-Saharan Africa, and did particularly poorly in freedom from corruption, scoring 19 out of 100 points. On the 2010 Ibrahim Index, Angola ranked 43rd out of 53 sub-Saharan African countries.

...
Wikipedia