Burundi: 140 corruption cases handled in Burundi in 4 months

 Bujumbura, Burundi - Some 140 corruption, economic and financial mismanagement cases, through which the Burundi government had lost funds totalling 1.4 billion Burundian francs (about US$ 1.4 million), were handled in the country between September 2010 and January 2011, according to the nation's anti-graft Czar, Léonidas Habonimana.

He said, however, that the government had recovered 400 million Burundian francs (about US$ 400,000) from some of the cases already finalized.

The remaining cases are still being going on, Habonimana said, promising that his organization would recover more money for the government as more cases are decided.

The president of OLUCOME, a parallel anti-graft organization, Gabriel Rufyiri, said Thursday that in 2010, the watchdog investigated some 2,223 cases of corruption and mismanagement in the sectors of customs, public markets, transports, public service, trade, police, army and Parliament.

He said the government had lost more than 81 billion Burundian francs (nearly US$ 81 million) according to the cases before his organization.

Transparency International, in a recent report, ranked Burundi as the world's second most corrupt country.

During his investiture for a second five-year term in August 2010, the Burundian head of State, Pierre Nkurunziza, had advocated 'zero tolerance' for corruption. A number of high-profile Burundians are in jail for corrupt practices