Organised by GIACC, the Global Infrastructure Anti-Corruption Centre and RACOP, the African Public Procurement Network, a high-level international symposium entitled “Corruption in Public Procurement in Africa: The Need for Collective Action” was held online on 15 January for 140 participants from government, the private sector and civil society across Francophone Africa.

Presentations were made by leading international anti-corruption experts from Africa, Canada and the UK on a range of topics including the mapping of corruption risks, relevant international standards, and the growing role of AI. The presentation by GIACC-UK included an introduction to the ACTS tool used in CoST’s Independent Review process to map underlying drivers of corruption risks.

Several speakers made the point that, important as strong systems and controls are, they are not in themselves sufficient to curb corruption unless the underlying drivers of risk are also understood and addressed. Hence the importance of a combination of transparency and participation in giving voice to all stakeholders, including the private sector, which wants to be seen as part of the solution and not just part of the problem.

The material about CoST and the ACTS tool was presented by Hamish Goldie-Scot, a Director of GIACC-UK, and Technical Adviser to CoST.