The Ethiopian Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (FEAC), on Monday said it is intensifying the battle against corruption with more public awareness targeting 25 million Ethiopians within the next two years.
Birhanu Kifetew, an official of FEAC, said this at the seventh regular session of the executive committee of the national coalition against corruption in Addis Ababa.
Kifetew said the commission was addressing the root causes of corruption in the country through various preventive strategies of bringing about attitudinal change.
He said the agency had also introduced awareness programme in schools at various levels to rid the country of corruption.
According to Kifetew, the commission is extending the measures taken against officials of the Revenue and Customs Authority to other organisations as well.
The meeting reviewed the performance of the national coalition against corruption over the past two years while projecting its plans for the next two years, which include collaboration with the agency to create public awareness targeting 25 million Ethiopians.
Meanwhile, prosecutors at the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) announced in court that they had filed charges against 44 persons in the high profile corruption case involving the Ethiopian Minister of Revenue and Customs Authority, Melaku Fenta.
It would be recalled that Fenta, who was also Director-General of the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA), and his then deputy, Gebrewahed Giorgis, were among the 60 suspects arrested in April over allegation of corruption.
Others arrested of similar allegations included top tax officials in the country and their family members, along with close to 60 prominent and mid-level businessmen, customs officials and freight forwarders, while investigation is still on.
The commission said it had monitored the officials for over two years before the arrests and the subsequent charges against them.
The charges included halting of investigations, goods passing through customs un-inspected and having the books of the companies under investigation audited twice for undue benefits on the part of officials.
Businessmen, on the other hand, are accused of alleged tax evasion through graft, the import of cement using the prohibited Franco Valuta method and selling duty-free imports meant for investment
