The Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission of Ethiopia said it had recovered more than 21 million Birr and other assets that were lost to corruption in the last 10 months alone. The assets recovered included cash, buildings, land, and other properties.

According to the 10-month performance report of the Commission, 21,096,806 Birr (in cash); 1,945 square meter of land; three tusks; four buildings; 23 blackberry cell phones (worth 195, 000 Birr) and other assets were returned to the lawful owner, which is the Government.

In the stated period, 23 cases involving the above-mentioned proceeds of corruption were decided in favour of the Commission, raising its performance to a 100 per cent.

As for the restraining of alleged proceeds of corruption, the Commission caused the restraining of 128,709 square meter of land, 28 vehicles, 60 residential houses, eight business organizations, and 3,012,332.69 Birr in cash.

In the reported period, the investigation of 339 files was finalized and verdict was given on 164 files, 144 of which were decided in favour of the Commission. Out of the 409 defendants that were brought to court in the stated period, 293 of them were convicted.

Accordingly, the conviction rate of the offenders calculated in terms of the number of files convicted is 87.8 per cent.

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Source: Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission