Ethiopian Commodity Market: The Unholy Marriage of ECX and EGTE?

Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), that was established in April 2008 and Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise (EGTE), a government agency that begin trading coffee and oilseed on the exchange floor last year had a marriage of convenient.

Ever the exchange was operational and abandoned its original declared mission of Grain Commodity market reform to become an export commodities collection center armed with government decree, it defied every transparency and independence a free market institution requires.

The Exchange that failed to bring about the real private traders to participate in the exchange floor made a habit of threatening and forcing farmers and traders with government proclamation and decree to force sell their commodity, contrary to its stated mission of free market promotion.

Therefore, the ECX marriage proposal to EGTE was too convenient and too good to be true following the calculated government raid of private coffee traders' warehouses and revoking their license last year. Accordingly, the ECX, backed by the power of the ruling regime and its operatives ended up cornering the export market with EGTE as as its unholy partner.


ECX that boost independence and transparency ended up being another government tool with the majority of high government official seating on the board of Directors, EGTE as a partner and the ruling regime’s business enterprises crowding out the private sector. in essence transparency became a PR stunt for gullible audience.


At the mean time,  EGTE on its official website claims it was “re-established in accordance with Regulation No. 58/92 of the Councils of Ministers and completed merger with Ethiopian Oil Seeds and Pulses Export Corporation".


The Agency that joined the ECX as any trader of coffee commodities was re-established in 2002 and put up its website by an outfit called ITSC Technology Support, located in Bole, Addis Ababa with server in Malaysia, according Network Solution.


What is peculiar about the website that was created on July 2002 and modified on August of 2008, (four months after the ECX was officially opened), it began selling commodities online. What is also troubling is the connection of ITSC and Malaysia. When ECX uses the Ethiopian telecom server, how is it a government agency like EGTE managed by unaccountable private outfit to the public using a server in Malaysian?  


In addition, for a major government agency like EGTE that dominates agriculture commodity trade and export in the country there is no a single responsible person named on its official website. How is it the Exchange overlooked these defecinecy to allow it to dominate commodity trade?


No one is sure the difference between the government’s agencies, the ruling party business and the ‘private traders’. But, one thing seems clear, like many other agencies the ECX and EGTE are fronts for the regime unlike the CEO of the ECX and the Genral Manager of EGTE wants the world to believe.


To illustrate the lack of transparency the official ECX’s website have many deficiencies. It resembles more like a private enterprise owned by individuals than a national commodity exchange. For example, it claims on about us “ECX creates trust and transparency through aggressive market data dissemination to all market actors, through clearly defined rules of trading, warehousing, payments and delivery and business conduct, and through an internal dispute settlement mechanism. ECX provides market integrity at three important levels: the integrity of the product itself, the integrity of the transaction, and the integrity of the market actors”


The above official statement does not equate with what is practiced on the ground by the hand picked "market actors” like EGTE. With its online sells around the world the agency that pride to have its own warehouse, transport… and a budget of over 105 million birr of public fund competing with private traders with impunity says more about ECX motives than to ‘create trust and transparency” as stated.


Since last year, the agency became coffee and various cash crops trader and exporter with multiple and confecting role in the market. It is a market price stabilizer, exporter of cash crops, a seller of grain commodities to institutional buyers, storage operator, transporter etc. The new addition to its service as an online seller of cash commodity to the world does not equate with “integrity of the transaction and market actors” as the ECX claimed. see EGTE website. 


The convenient marriage between ECX and EGTE not only lacks integrity and transparency, but exhibits the prevalence of corruption and cronyism in the part of the ECX, the total breakdown of the market and the vulnerability of the indigenous farmers and traders.


When free market is used and abused by officals who have other motives than the free exchanges of goods and services to the benefit the public it shows the contempt of officials towards the public and how public institutions can be used by corrupt market operatives. Nothing can be more evidence than the only sources of public information than the websites of the ECX and EGTE.


During the establishment of the exchange, the present CEO and founder of ECX Dr. Eleni Z. Gabre-Madhin (then Chief of Party, ECEX Project of Internationa Food Policy Research Iinstitute (IFPRE), made a speech at TED conference on “Africa: the Next Chapter” in Arusha, Tanzania  titled:- On Happiness, Freedom, and Unleashing the Power of the Market. Below are the last three paragraphs of the speech:

“The winds of change are here. At present, there is a great momentum on the part of both the government at the highest level and the private sector, from farmer groups all the way to industrial actors. ECEX is the market for Ethiopia’s new Millennium, which starts in late 2007. The last Parliament of our century opened last October with the President announcing that this initiative is the country’s top economic priority for the next year. The stakes are high, and the returns will be even higher.


Can Ethiopia do it? We believe it can be done. We say Yichalal!, it can be done, following the tradition of our great runner, Haile Gebreselassie. Moreover, ECEX paves the way for a pan-African trading platform. ECEX positions Ethiopia as a regional market player, adding significant value to its $1 billon domestic market, in which Ethiopia is Africa’s second largest maize producer, with total grain production 30 percent higher than South Africa. ECEX enables our farmers to connect to consumers of our pulses and sesame seed in the huge and growing markets of India and China, as well as Europe. If ECEX can capture even 40 percent of the current domestic market and raise commercialization by farmers by just 25 percent, this doubles the value of the domestic market.


By creating meaningful choices and transforming the lives of Ethiopian small farmers, we believe that ECEX is an outstanding value proposition to Ethiopia’s future and that the sky is the limit."

While the speech and the hype were meant to please the donor community to doll more money than anything else, it has no substance to the reality of the market in Ethiopia. As expected, the exchange did not go further than to become an efficient collection warehouse of cash commodity to the regime's liking.


The CEO speech that promised to transform the Grain commodity market turned-out to be an empty promise, because the CEO compromised free market principle by breaking  the rules of transparency to liking of the regime in power. She surrndered to the regime appitit to earn forign exchange by cornering the market than badly needed market reform.


In a positive note, the ECX, for the first time in the country's history introduced the concept of formal trading. If only the government  along the corrupt and privileged traders who tag along with regimes in power gets out of the way, the country would have advanced as a major commodity producers in the region. 


Salvaging the Exchange?


Like establishing the exchange salvaging it requires a political will of the government as well as principled stand and ethics on governance in the part of our intellectuals. In that regard, the regime consistently proven it has no desire to surrender public institutions to independent groups. What we are left with is the CEO doing the right thing, including banning  the government officials and the regime affiliate traders from involving in the exchange affairs beyond regulating. The CEO would do the people and the maraket a big favior to resign.

While opposition political parties are distracted by the chaos created by the ruling regime, it is their duity to demand the independence of the ECX and the resignation of the officers and the CEO.

Amoung the few institutions in the country that have the major stranglehold in the lives of the people of Ethiopia are the ECX and EGTE. As much as political reform is needed for the rights and liberty of the people of Ethiopia market reform should comes on the top of the agenda of any serious opposition political party to free the people from the bondage of economic  oppression by the regime and its affiliates. Among the urgent demands required by the oppositions are: banning all the ruling party businesses from the market, demanding the exchange to be run by independent committee, demanding public disclosure of the assets and monitory interests of all government officials, and the right for Indigenous farmers and traders to form independent associations.

ECX and EGTE can not continue dodgeing the question of transparency by supressing information to escape accountability.

Human Rights Facts (105): The Aid Curse, or the Negative Effect of International Development Aid on Democracy

March 13, 2009

Filip Spagnoli


Via Bill Easterly’s blog, I discovered this paper on the so-called “aid curse“: just as dependence on natural resources has a negative effect on the quality of a country’s governance and democracy (a phenomenon called the resource curse), so has international development aid (or official development aid, ODA), especially in countries which depend heavily on aid (and in which aid represents a large percentage of GDP).

This is surprising, because one of the aims of international development aid is to bolster the quality of governance, directly through aid targeted at this objective, or indirectly on the assumption that better education, health care etc. will ultimately lead to better governance.

It seems now that there is a correlation (and perhaps even a causal link) between high levels of aid and low levels of democracy. The explanation is that foreign aid , like the revenue of natural resources, provides an opportunity for governments and leaders to appropriate funds illegitimately. And, because they benefit from aid, they will try to exclude other groups from power. This obviously destroys democratic institutions or makes it more difficult to establish them.

 Foreign aid also reduces the need for a system of taxation. And without such a system, it’s a lot more difficult to construct a well-functioning government, and it’s less likely that forces for representation take root (historically, the principle of “no taxation without representation” has promoted democracy). When a government doesn’t depend on taxes for its revenues, then it will have less incentives to seek accountability.

These graphs from the paper show how the levels of democracy in countries decrease while the levels of aid (as official development aid – ODA - over GDP) increase:

None of this proves that we should give less aid to developing countries. Probably the opposite is true. What it proves is that aid is more than just sending money. Donors should check what happens to their money, should target the money, and should bypass the “sticky fingers” in government as much as possible. To some extent, donors should also make aid conditional on democratic reform because this reform is the way to avoid aid inefficiency. However, when doing so, they should be careful not to put the cart before the horse: one of the goals of aid is precisely democratization. more...
 
Commentary from TGW:
 
It is abundantly clear by now a country that receives more Foreign Aid is in a worst situation than those who do less. The dependence theory often focuses on the poor, when in actuality the urban élites and the administrators of the funds are the one who depends on Aid and sustain it by all means necessary to maintain their life style.


It is not uncommon to see the industry flourishing in a short span of time and takeing over the basic service of  governments by further expanding in other areas. It is customary government officials with their insider knowledge and connection setting up shop to take advantage of the massive infusion of Aid fund.

The cycle of dependence can not be broken until the élites' dependence on Aid is dealt with, and until they stop perpetuating problems geared on fund raising than problem solving.

CORRUPTION-AFRICA: A Crime Against Development

By Sholain Govender-Bateman

Dr. Jonathan Lucas says corruption is preventing the world from meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

     TSHWANE, Dec 9, 2009 (IPS) - Corruption is preventing the world from reducing extreme poverty, from averting child deaths and even from fighting epidemics like HIV/AIDS. And it will have a devastating effect on the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals if not tackled directly by each national government.

The way to do this, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Southern Africa representative Dr. Jonathan Lucas, is through the full implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) which most countries are signatories to.
      Lucas was speaking to stakeholders on International Anti-Corruption Day in Tshwane on Dec 9. "The 2009 message is simple: Corruption is a crime against development, democracy, education, prosperity, public health and justice – what many would consider the pillars of social well being."

     He said corruption was no longer hidden. "It is now seen by people across the world as a serious crime, a crime which weakens societies, ruins lives, and spurs underdevelopment."
     The UNCAC agreement, which was signed in Merida, Mexico six years ago, sets out specific guidelines that countries should follow in order to combat corruption.
     On December 14, 2005, UNCAC came into force and became the first legally binding, global anti-corruption agreement, and was "a significant achievement in the fight against corruption" according to Lucas.
       In November this year more than 1,000 participants from the 141 signatory countries attended the third conference of the state parties to UNCAC in Doha, Qatar. The "Doha Mechanism of Implementation" was agreed upon as a mechanism to monitor the convention.
      According to UNODC executive director Antonia Maria Costa: "This agreement will not end corruption, but will enable us to measure and fight it."
      In a statement released today, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the Doha agreement meant that: "From now on, states will be judged by the actions they take to fight corruption, not just the promises they make."
      Lucas told IPS that with cases like the recent accusations of nepotism and other corruption made against Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma by opposition leader John Benjamin, Zambia’s unresolved corruption allegations against former President Frederick Chiluba and Uganda’s ongoing battle for democracy amidst claims of election rigging and dictatorship, UNCAC was committed to ongoing engagement with each state. He added each national government was responsible for the implementation of the convention.
     The convention is based on four pillars – prevention, criminalisation, asset recovery and international co-operation.
     Open, honest and efficient decision-making, fair competition and ethical procurement systems are some of the aims of the convention. UNCAC also calls for a ban on bribery in all investment decisions, both local and international and law enforcement and swift international co-operation that leaves no place for criminals to hide.
      "According to the World Bank," said Lucas, "the cross-border flow of money related to corruption is estimated to be 1.6 trillion US dollars per year."
       This reflects the huge impact that corruption has on developing states and is why UNODC Southern Africa launched the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network for Southern Africa (Arinsa) in March this year.
       Lucas said Arinsa was of critical importance in Southern Africa as it created an informal gateway for anti-corruption information exchange and co-ordination between law enforcement and judicial authorities in the field of asset seizure in countries Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
      In a major breakthrough for UNCAC, countries agreed on asset recovery as part of the UNODC/World Bank joint Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) launched in 2007.
      Lucas said asset recovery was a challenge and particularly important for developing countries where corruption eroded much needed public resources. "The work of the StAR Initiative has proven successful in a number of pilot countries including Bangladesh, Haiti, Indonesia and Nigeria."
      Key to fighting corruption, is the inclusion of the private sector in the implementation of anti-corruption strategies, said Ki-moon.
     "The private sector should not lag behind governments. Businesses must also prevent corruption within their ranks, and keep bribery out of the tendering and procurement processes."
      He urged companies not to cheat and to open themselves up to peer review in line with the 10th principle of the UN Global Compact. This principle states that "businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery".
      As part of this process, UNODC in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers, released the first edition of the "Anti-Corruption Policies and Measures of the Fortune Global 500" report in November this year. The report provides an overview of measures that 2008 Fortune Global 500 countries have taken to combat corruption and economic crime.
      "When public money is stolen for private gain, it means fewer resources to build schools, hospitals, roads and water treatment facilities," said the U.N. Secretary General.
     "When foreign aid is diverted into private bank accounts, major infrastructure projects come to a halt. Corruption enables fake or sub-standard medicines to be dumped on the market, and hazardous waste to be dumped in landfill sites and in oceans. The vulnerable suffer first and worst." (END)

The need to form Corruption watch in Diaspora to monitor the corruption of the official of the Government of Ethiopia and their associates is long over due. Opposition parties, the media, civic societies and international organization must peruse public disclosure of assets and fiancéial interst of all government officials of Ethiopia. Their accounts and asset holdings in foreign countries must be public, and international anti corruption fighters must be consulted to make them accountable.

The Case for Democracy: Where does Ethiopia Stands?

The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror

Natan Sharansky and Ron Dermer

Source

In this work Natan Sharansky and Ron Dermer present a series of arguments as to how and why democracy makes the world safer. Sharansky sets out by dividing the world between "free" and "fear" societies. Then he employs a simple test to discern a free society from a society based on fear: Can one enter a public square and express any opinion without fear of being arrested? If not, one is in a society that runs on fear. Then, he describes the mechanics of fear societies, focusing on three basic groups: true believers, double thinkers, and dissidents.

Sharansky uses personal anecdotes to demonstrate what these categories mean, and to describe, for readers who have lived only in free societies, the experience of living in a fear society. He admits that he was, like most of the Soviet population, a double thinker, constantly performing a balancing act between his true feelings and his public feelings. As a child, he privately celebrated Stalin's death, and then joined the public expressions of mourning and praise.

Only those adept at reading these mechanics, Sharansky warns, can tell the true believers from the double thinkers. Most outsiders mistakenly accept the popularity of despotic states because these regimes spend great effort trying to conceal the difference between their true believers and double thinkers. The failure to see the difference between the two, however, is not just a question of political acumen; it is a question of moral clarity.
Sharansky then analyzes the inherent instability of fear societies. Their leaders lack popular support, and, over time, they lose true believers. So the regime must work harder to hold onto power. To prop itself up, the regime needs an external enemy, who serves a dual, if not contradictory, purpose. Because the fear society stifles creative thought, it lacks scientific and technological progress, and so must mimic those of its rival. It also uses the rival as the scapegoat for its own political malaise. By contrast, governments of free societies are accountable to the will of the people and the laws of their country. A democratic leader who pursues a reckless agenda cannot do so indefinitely.

Sharansky explains how freedom can guide free societies in their dealings with fear societies. He does so by raising three questions: Is freedom from tyranny universally desired? Is pursuing that goal universally desirable? And can it be done, even if imposing it on a nation is required? Discussing the United State’s role in the world, he responds to criticisms of so-called realists from both the left and right who believe that America's foreign policy should be guided only by interests--and not by ideals. He rejects the notion that certain cultures are incompatible with democracy. Exporting freedom to these societies, he argues, is moral since it helps oppressed people obtain basic liberties. But it is also pragmatic, because democratic societies tend to resolve their differences peacefully.
Sharansky advocates the use of well-calculated international pressure against tyrannies. In the Middle East, the dictatorships may be vehemently anti-American, but the people tend to favor the West. The West can influence undemocratic and anti-American regimes such as Iran's, Saudi Arabia's, and Syria's by insisting that their people enjoy some basic freedoms.

According to Sharansky:-

"We must understand the difference between fear societies and free societies, between dictators and democrats. We must understand the link between democracy and peace and between human rights and security. Above all, we must bring back moral clarity so that we may draw on the power of free individuals, free nations, and the free world for the enormous challenges ahead. "

Born in the USSR in 1948 Sharansky spent many years in opposition to the Soviet system which brought him to be imprisoned in a Gulag and, as he puts it himself, it was only after he was finally released by his Soviet jailers and was allowed to emigrate to Israel, he came to:-

"Understand a critical difference between the world of fear and the world of freedom. In the former, the primary challenge is finding the inner strength to confront evil. In the latter, the primary challenge is finding the moral clarity to see evil. "

Foreign Exchange: The Ethiopian regime on the Pursue of Dollar?

Governments in peruse to earn Foreign exchange subsidize the cost of production and services to the benefit of the urban élites, set the stage for official corruption at any cost. We believe that, it is one of the major reasons African countries became a primary commodity exporters on the expenses of the producers and service providers resulting in the long overdue lack of the indigenous economic reform. The following paragraphs argue the problem of government’s subsidizing one area of services at the cost of national long term interest.

As coffee commodity, the celebrated Ethiopian Airline (EAL) is another cash cow for the Ethiopian regime. Since its birth, the EAL like many of the public institutions that generate lots of hard cash has been serving the authoritarian regimes we are fated to be ruled under. If one observes carefully everything the current regime does, be it operating EAL, entreating the donors, export of cash crops, luring the Diaspora for investment or receiving remittance...etc. has been in search of hard currency, but nothing to do with the wellbeing of Ethiopians.

Not long ago, the CEO of the Airline was on the media telling us how he is running the Airlines to profitability…. won award and all. Off-course, he cannot talk about the highly subsidized operational cost of the Airline such as the free rent and airport services. Given Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin of TPLF is his boss as the chairman of the Board of Director of the Airline; the CEO’s comment is not surprising. It would be politically incorrect even may be deadly for the CEO to mention any truth to the operation of the Airline and the subsidy it receive from the government.

What is relevant and out of the ordinary about the Airline is that, even though it provides services to the public; it is owned and highly subsidized by the government without much competition just because it earns hard currency. Furthermore, no one actually knows where the generated revenue goes and who is accountable to the tax payers due to lack of independent oversight.

In terms of revenue, we have been hearing recently the Airline has made record profits. Such report was uttered by the CEO through the government media and by other Medias parroting the same source. Since the CEO is working for the regime and the source of the news is also the regime itself without independent media to verify, it could be a cheery-pick report. Strangely, the supposedly independent press in the country is mimicking the same source without being aware what the source meant by profit.

Here is where it gets humorous; the ‘profitable’ airline practically does not pay rent for the 100s of offices it ‘rents’ in the country. It merely pays a ‘symbolic’ rent for the government run Housing Authority that holds on to thousands of properties confiscated from private citizens during the brutal Derg regime on the bases of Marxist revolution…the exploiters…, Ethiopia Tekdim and all.

We know for fact, there are half a dozen offices in the center of town the Airline rents for less than 1000 birr per month from the Housing Authorities. It is unthinkable in the world of business that, a commercial Airline paying an equivalent of less than 100 us dollar to rent an office space in a commercial district of an urban center anywhere but only in Ethiopia whose slogan is drummed “Abiyotawi democracy…progress…free market and record profits”…,etc. If profit making was so much easy as it is claimed (one can pay practically no rent to run an Airline and claim to make a record profit) then, everyone would have started an airline business. Actually, according to the regime’s law no one can operate an Airline business in Ethiopia but the regime let alone not pay rent.

What is oxymoronic is that, the property the regime holds to subsidize the Airline – not to pay the appropriate rent belongs to someone who probably spent all his/her lifesaving to build it. But the regime feels it can rent it low to an Airline who made millions of dollar (not birr) ‘record’ profits. What is new in “Abiyotawi democracy” and its version of free market is that, it is free market only to the regime and its affiliate.

In terms of others, how many subsidized rent the regime offers to keep its extortion going? We do not know. But we have discovered an owner of a busy café who pays a mere 500 birr rent per month and turn around to built a six story building and rent it for thousands of dollars per month to a foreign entity. That is what the regime calls free market…progresses…growth, etc.

There are also commercial and residential properties the regime rents to ‘selected’ few that pays so little rent. They spent more for electricity than they do for rent. Some people we encounter even fly first class on EAL paying birr to an overseas 'business' conference to lecture about investment opportunities in Ethiopia, and spent more money on a dinner than they do for a government subsidized rent they pay on their residence back home. Such practice is a slap on the face of the original owners, who have been told not to apply to recover their properties by some cooked-up technicalities of the regime’s making.

In such system political cronyism and corruption is a standard procedure to acquire a confiscated commercial and residential properties for dirt cheap rent and lease land for foreign investors for dollar. Even the gullible Diasporas are lured to invest in building their dream homes; justifying their ill deeds as it is good for progress…the ‘economy is growing rapidly…, etc.

For political consumptions, the above situations are hipped up as progressive events by the regime. The fact is, progress itself is a questionable proportion, and the question is who is progressing and at what cost? For example, we know some of the regime’s right hand-men live in the government confiscated villas practically for noting and build a villa of their own and rent it for thousands of dollars for foreigners (not birr). How about the regime affiliated businesses? Do they pay rent? Do they pay taxes? Do they even allow any one to compete with them? Is this Abiyotawi democracy at work? Going back to the EAL profit making, one cannot help but raise the question, why does the Airline get subsidy? This question itself can get one in trouble, but we can assume it is a cash-cow that generates hard currency for the regime.

There is much more about the dollar curse than any one can imagine. For instance, coffee export is one of the main one. Facilitated by the new established Commodity Exchange - the exchange, we were told was “to transform the agriculture market of the country for the benefit of the poor farmers”.

Coffee has always been the #1 foreign exchange earner for the country. The country exports the raw coffee through the many traditional private exporters outside the control of the ruling regimes. In the past the Coffee Board facilitated coffee export and coordinated its effort with the coffee exporter until the new commodity exchange came disguised as an agriculture commodity market reformer; shortly after it went out looking to control coffee and recently sesame seed (more to come) armed by the regime’s proclamation.

Another cash cow for the regime unknown to the average person is Sugar export. The few sugar producing companies still owned by the government has high ranking TPLF’s leader as the Board of Directors of the factories. For example, like the Ethiopian Airline Wonji is under Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin. What is even bizarre is Ethiopians pay an equivalent of five to ten times more for sugar produced in the country than the exported sugar that is sold in the international market for dollar. Accordingly, the regime made it illegal to sell “export designated sugar” in the local market as it is illegal to sell export designated coffee. What it means is dollar is what the regime seeks not birr. Incidentally, many merchants were jailed and lost their commodities for selling ‘export designated sugar’ in the local market in the past, just like coffee traders were not long ago. Thus, smuggling exported sugar back to the country became a profitable venture itself for many merchants because it is illegal to import sugar in the country.

Other areas the regime targets for foreign currency earning are selling Bonds to the Diaspora to ‘provide electricity in the rural Ethiopia’

http://www.ethioconsulatela.org/eepbond.html, shutting down independent money transfer services to control Diaspora remittance money transfer, luring Ethiopians in Diaspora to invest in their birth country and offering ‘free land’ to build their dream home, etc. Our ancestor Lucy was not spared too, thanks to the Ethiopian Trade and Investment Council- a peculiar outfit whose primary activity seems touring Lucy, unlike trade promotion as its name and mission implies http://www.eatic.org/home.html,

In Ethiopia, everything leads to the appetite of the regime for hard currency regardless of the cost to the Ethiopian people. Even building dams is intended to do with dollar earning like ‘exporting electricity’ to Sudan and Kenya while the population is living in darkness. There is unprecedented compulsion to earn hard currency on the expenses of the indigenous economy.

In conclusion, there is a lesson to be learned by all; in peruse of dollar there is a lots of ill gained wealth through corruption and cronyism by the regime’s affiliates and others. This ill gained wealth must be tracked, confiscated, and returned for the people of Ethiopia. And those who are involved in corruption must be punished and shamed. To accomplish such accountability for the sake of the Ethiopian people; political parties, civic societies, religious institutions and the independent media must create a coalition and establish an institution that demands the rule of law for good governance.

It must be recognized that, the root causes of poverty, underdevelopment and the associated tyranny and absence of freedom are directly related with corruption of officials and business that are sustained by colliding with the officials. Therefore, we urge Ethiopian intellectuals to come forward to lead and challenge their peers who are involved in corruption, and the so called ‘businesses’ who collide with the regime on the expenses of Ethiopians and make them accountable for conspiring to be part of the elaborate crime of corruptions against the Ethiopian people.

Independent media and civic institutions must investigate individuals and their affiliate’s who facilitate corruption and expose the responsible persons. At the Individual level, Ethiopians must demand transparency and make sure not to get involved in corruption for short term benefits. Transparency at all level of governance is a must to free the Ethiopian people, and for good governance to flourish and move forward.

Transparency: Why is the Ethiopian Government Hiding?

There is hardly any government in the world who does not have a website to inform the world about the structure of its government and the activities governing its nation. Unlike such governments, the Ethiopian government lead by TPLF/EPRDF since it came to power over 18 years ago has no website. One wonders why? Is there a need to hide the activities of governance, if so what is it hiding?

For the curious researcher, Google search finds practically no website where one can find any useful information about the Ethiopian government. We found some in few embassies’ websites and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with noting worthy of information. For instance, the Ethiopian Embassy London, lead by Ambassador Berhanu Kebede (Biography)

has a list of the regime's cabinets with no profiles or credential on it's website.

The Ethiopian Embassy in Washington DC, lead by Ambassador Samuel Assefa; a PHD in Political Science has no information on the Embassy’s website about the government he serves.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

lead by Seyoum Mesfin (Biography) who oversees all the embassies around the world has no information on its government beside the name list of officials with no profile and credential.

The Supposedly Information Ministry lead by Berket Simon no longer exists and is replaced by Government Communication Agency with no website.

The Ministries in the country and the Embassies around the world have no worthy information on the government they serve in their official website.

The responsible persons failed to demand the regime they serve to be transparent enough to revile basic information on the identity and qualification of who is running the country, and the service they provide for the citizens. Their complicity to be part of the clandestine activity by rendering their professional responsibility useless is pitiful.

The question remains, why does a government who is supposedly responsible for over 80 million people and supported with multiple donors for the good portion of its budget chooses not to have a web portal to tell the world about itself, its policies, and put-out information vital to the citizens and the international community? How is it the loyal Ambassadors and Ministers of the regime choice to get along with out protest or accountability.

When one examines comparable governments in Africa, not only they have a comprehensive information portal to inform and promote their country, they list who is who in government with their credentials. For instance, the Government of Djibouti with a population of half a million has a comprehensive portal about its government.

The Republic of Kenya has comprehensive government information portal as well as the Kenya Ministry of Information, and various government agencies including Kenyan Investment Authority portal, to mention a few.

It is fair to assume that the ruling regime of Ethiopia monopoly of media infrastructure and suppression of IT technology with the lowest penetration rate in the world are part of a deliberate plan designed to hide its activity and the identity and credential of its cabinet, managers, and operatives. In contrast, the regime has a full service web portal only when it serves its political and economic interest like Ethiopian Commodity Exchange

or Ethiopian Human Right Commission , but block every thing else that expose its dismal record in governance, human right, investment, independent media and civic societies. It is obvious the conspiracy to hide important information to conceal its unqualified officials working for the regime, and to avoid accountability from Ethiopians and the world community.

The question still remains, in a day of information revolution, why is the regime hiding from world and operating in a clandestine fashion by concealing the activity of its governance? And why no one is not making the regime accountable.

Ethiopians and the international community must demand transparency from the regime and its affiliated agencies and require disclosure of the profile and credential of its officials and manager. Furthermore, the willing individuals who serve the regime knowingly conspire to keep the people of Ethiopia in the dark must be identified and be accountable.

Public institutions must be transparent to release all information on their agencies in order to be accountable to the public. Only then, the people of Ethiopia can make the decision of the leadership skills and trustworthiness of leaders to hold public offices.

The culture of authoritarian rule operating in clandestine fashion on the expenses of the people must end. Every Ethiopian must demand open governance and accountability of one and all.

Election: is the National Election Board of Ethiopia impartial and independent?

The regime that claims’ having an ‘independent’ election board is running the nation election to legitimize itself as a winner of the 2005 election and beyond could not be able to have a secure website under their control. The supposedly independent and the decider of the winners and losers of the national election do not run their own website. Instead they passed on this sensitive responsibility to an individual named Atnafseged Mahdere, who run an outfit called Afrolink Studio with an address 4921 Seminary Road Apt1416 City: Alexandria State/Province:VA Postal Code:22311 Country: US Registrant Phone:+1.2404634584 Phone Ext.:Registrant FAX:+1.0 FAX Ext.:Registrant Email:togi@afrolinkstudio.com according the Source network solutions.

Afrollink studio is also listed as a web design service http://afrolinkstudio.com/ located at Comet Building, 4th Floor, 401 (next to Axum Hotel) in Addis Ababa with US representative Atnafseged (Togi) Mahdere Tel. 001-240-463-4584. e-mail: togi@afrolinkstudio.com according its website.

No one knows why the most sensitive government run Election Board ‘appointed’ by the Prime Minster with the approval of the ‘parliament’ is runnng its website by an outfit that uses a server outside the country.

“Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.” BARACK OBAMA

The concept of Democracy became a mockery of tyrannical rulers and their apologists. The Ethiopian regime and its intellectuals, who serve in such responsibility, took corruption to a different level. Their concept of Democracy became putting up show by an Election Board for the unsuspecting and gullible international community’s low expectation of African democracy. Noting can exhibit the crudeness of those who are willing to be actors and actresses of the ruling regime charade of election than the election board members.

In unprecedented submission to tyranny, the so called members of the Ethiopian Election Board were willing to participate in fraud election in 2005 and are preparing for another show 2010 election at the expenses of the rights, freedom and dignity of the Ethiopia people.

They are knowingly and willingly choosing to participate in the day-drama to legitimize a non -existence election to give a stamp of approval for the predetermined winner. In doing so, they are willing to put their moral, credentials and professional ethics on line and sacrifice, the people of Ethiopia, for what ever it worth.

Equally responsible in the history of authoritarian regimes are intellectuals who give cover in the service for a dictatorial governments. Their violation of transparency, accountability, and willingness to compromise their professional ethics continues to be the cause of poor governance in general and human right violations, poverty, corruption…,etc..

In the case of Ethiopia, it is saddening to see a nation with a population of 80 plus million people became a play ground of morally and ethically impaired intellectuals in the service of the ruling regime conducting business as usual without accountability for the people of Ethiopia or anyone else. It also says a lot about the callousness of the international community to look the other way when they help sustain unaccountable regime with a decimal record of election fraud, human right violations, the cause of massive poverty, and corruption.

We cannot help but ask who should be held accountable? According to the National Election Board website run by an outside outfit the following are members of the board listed.

www.electionsethiopia.org/Index.html

Mr. Kemal Bedri Kelo; Chairman of the board (photo)
Abdella Adem; Member (Photo)

Girma Jarso; Member (Photo)

Kebedech Erdachew Mamuye; Member (Photo)

Dr Tadios Munie; Member (photo)

Tesfaye Mengesha Abegaz; Member (Photo)

In a true democratic process – government by the people for the people, having an independent and transparent election board is critical. Therefore, we urge all Ethiopians to hold the election board members and the rubber stamp parliament members who ‘approve them as legitimate and impartial’ accountable for their inactions. Both the election board members and parliament members are conspiring to deprive the people of Ethiopia their right to elect their leaders and live in a democratic country to peruse their lives and liberties under the peoples’ government.

We advise all Ethiopians, to follow-up on individuals who serve and cover for the regime by documenting their misdeeds and corruption, so that they can be accountable in the near future.

Transparent Governance must prevail, and the intellectuals who prevent it must be held accountable in every venue.