John O'Shea, Sunday Independent, 29th October 2006

A UK-BASED entrepreneur is attempting to change the governments of Africa by offering Africa's political leaders a $5m (€3.9m) prize - many times the going rate for a Nobel Peace Prize - if they do not plunder the national treasury or rig elections.

Defying conventional means, Mo Ibrahim is convinced that if African leaders remove corruption and improve governance the continent would not need any aid.

The initiative is a sad commentary on the state of Africa and the state of its leaders. It is a sad reflection, too, on the international community, of which Ireland is a part, who continue to channel hundreds of millions of aid money through these corrupt governments in the knowledge that they are corrupt.

By the African Union's own estimate, Africa loses as much as US$148bn a year to corruption - a quarter of Africa's entire GDP. The AU has accepted that no business ever gets done in Africa without a present changing hands.

According to a 2004 study by a US Senate committee, the World Bank has lost about $100bn slated for development in the world's poorest nations to corruption since 1946 - nearly 20 per cent of its lending portfolio.

Other experts estimate that between five and 25 per cent of the €525bn the Bank has lent since 1946 has been misused.

Many believe it is time for us to examine how we channel aid in the developing world. After all, the lives of thousands depend on it.

John O'Shea is CEO of the charity GOAL