is most severe in municipalities, in tax collection agencies, in courts, in kebele and wereda administrations, and in the police. Educational institutions and parliament are perceived to be the least corrupt. 212. The CSAR identifies major causes of corruption in the country as follows: poor governance; lack of accountability and transparency; low levels of a democratic culture and tradition; inadequate accounting; a weak legal and judicial system; the collapse in moral values; and, an over-regulated bureaucracy. 213. CSAR findings show that Ethiopian public opinion generally agrees on the need to step up the anti-corruption crusade since failure to contain or eradicate it will impede national democracy and development. This may slow down the effects of government’s poverty reduction programme and reduce government revenue. 214. Key challenges in the national anti-corruption crusade include: (a) absence of a fully developed civil service code of ethics; (b) weak mechanisms for ensuring observance of regulations and procedures; and, (c) manpower shortages and weaknesses in supervisory and auditing agencies. Measures for Combating Corruption and Results Achieved Establishment of the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Agency (FEACC) 215. According to the CSAR, the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC), established in 2001, is the leading agency in the country’s anticorruption crusade. 216. The FEACC has three interrelated core missions, as elaborated in Proclamation No.433/2005. These are to educate the public about the evils of corruption; to investigate and prosecute those engaged in corrupt practices; and to take preventive and proactive steps to discourage corruption. The FEACC occasionally delegates its authority to regional state governments in alleged cases of corruption involving federally-funded programmes, institutions and organisations in the regional states. It has also helped a number of regional state governments set up anti-corruption bodies. According to the CSAR, some results achieved by the FEACC in its anti-corruption crusade are outlined below: • The establishment of seven anti-corruption commissions in 9 regional states • Setting up ethical offices in 267 government agencies and development organisations to monitor the state of corruption, and to coordinate ethical and anti-corruption activities in those organisations. - 103 -