The Ethiopian Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission: A Critical Assessment

The Ethiopian FEACC is a dedicated anti-corruption agency, invested with expansive powers to combat corruption in the country. It was established in 2001 in the context of the accelerated internationalisation of anti-corruption law. The mandate of the FEACC is wide, spanning the prevention, investigation and prosecution of all forms of corruption in Ethiopia. This article seeks to evaluate critically the performance of the FEACC in the execution of its mandate during the first decade of its existence. To this end it situates the creation and design of the FEACC within the global context of anti-corruption agencies, and seeks to assess its performance against generally accepted criteria, such as independence and accountability. The article seeks also to identify legal, political and institutional impediments to the success of the FEACC and proposes possible routes to overcoming such impediments. The FEACC’s first decade has been a mixed one, with some notable successes offset against a number of inadequacies in need of significant and urgent attention.