CHAPTER THREE: DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE _____________________________________________________________________ Good practice no. 3.3: Anti-corruption committees in the Burkinabe police service For RENLAC, an effective strategy for combating corruption is based on the involvement of all government agencies and all levels of responsibility. Therefore, on 8 November 2001, RENLAC held a meeting to consider the theme ‘Burkinabe police and corruption’. One of the important outcomes of the meeting was the acceptance by the police of a proposal made by RENLAC to establish committees to fight corruption. Since this seminar, these anti-corruption committees (CACs) began to be established in the police service. These committees are in fact small, internal administrative structures whose main function consists in monitoring and eliminating malfunctions and illegal practices during the course of daily work. To restore the good image of the administration with regard to its public service mission, these committees have to simultaneously detect the factors favouring corruption and propose downstream solutions and measures to reduce these. A CAC is a standing group that normally meets at least once every two weeks. There must be a CAC in every service in which the number of staff exceeds five people. In addition, management must recognise and support the existence of a CAC. For this purpose, a group formed by the director-general and the various directors is responsible for monitoring the activities of a CAC. A coordinator has been appointed for this purpose. 316. According to some CSOs, if there is something regarding which the state seems to have made efforts in this regard, “it is the creation of institutions to fight corruption. However, beyond their creation, these institutions do not have enough resources. The lack of independence does not allow them to act effectively on the ground in the fight against corruption”. While many circles of society welcome the advent of the ASCE, they are calling, on the other hand, for a “critical redrafting of the National Policy Document on the Combating of Corruption, a more asserted autonomy of the ASCE, the publication of annual reports by the ASCE, and the involvement of Parliament in the fight against corruption.” 317. The CNE has, for its part, prepared a draft on ethics to be applied in the fields of education, health, general administration, financial administration, and in the security and defence forces. As already noted in the introduction, the CNE has once again raised the alarm in its last report in 2007. In it, it notes that the politicisation of administrative structures, impunity, corruption, a poor sense of citizenship, and an education crisis are important trends affecting political and social life in Burkina Faso: “Impunity, politicisation, corruption leads to frustration and leads to revolts, which means noncompliance with rules, the rejection of the authority and what it stands for. It is the starting point of indiscipline, and poor sense of citizenship. They replace positive values and other values that are the antithesis of morality such as money and social position. It is through them that the most serious malfunctions and social fractures occur.” 10 10 Report 2007 of the CNE, page 18. 141