The Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission in collaboration with Transparency Ethiopia organized the panel in which two experts in the field presented relevant study papers.

In his presentation, Garbis Korajian highlighted the issue of corruption in the rural society in Ethiopia, where 80 percent of the total population live on agriculture.

The issue of corruption in rural communities has been left unexplored. He however indicated the need to launch large scale capacity building and awareness raising works on the issue.

Changing the lives of rural people in Ethiopia should be considered a requisite towards bringing about national prosperity, he said and indicated the need to prevent corruption to achieve desired results.

He said there have been a misconception that farmers because they are largely poor would not be exposed to corruption. There have been cases of corruption affecting rural communities, though, he noted.

Hence, he said, activities focusing on the prevention of corruption should be carried out in support of rural communities, who should also be made more aware of the ways in which corrupt practices might happen.

The other presenter, Dr. Costantinos Berihe said as the ways of corruption are complex, it poses the danger of preventing the private sector from growing with the pace it may otherwise has taken.

Corruption, he said, has wider implications on good governance and comes in the way of activities with bearing on national security.

He said the existence of democratic and human rights institutions, however, can go a long way in preventing corruption and forestalling the ill impacts of corrupt practices.

Transparency Ethiopia Director Iyasu Yimer said the workshop has the objective of encouraging those involved in development programs to bring the issue to the fore in their operations and also to make stakeholders aware of the ill-effects of corruption.

The workshop, he said, was also aimed at identifying procedures at institutions that are prone to corrupt practices and to hammer out ways on how to fill such gaps.

Some 80 representatives of government, public enterprises and embassies were in attendance of the panel discussion.

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