Kampala — A donor sanctioned corruption investigation at the borders and highways from Uganda to DR Congo has kicked off in Kigali.

The investigation will establish bribes that businesses pay and the number of roadblocks between Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern DR-Congo.

The donors think these are some of the major hindrances to free trade.

This was revealed yesterday ahead of a conference in Entebbe today during which donors are expected to ask East African countries to step-up the fight against corruption.

"We are trying to make people more aware of how many road-blocks exist, how many bribes they have to pay when they move their items from border to border," Jacqueline Damon, Programme Co-ordinator, Initiative for Central Africa (Inica) told The Monitor yesterday.

"They would be looking at these things in these countries," Damon said.

Inica is an initiative of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a grouping of major donors.

The investigation was planned from October 2004 to March 2005.

It will run up to September this year and be followed up from October 2005 to March 2006 at an estimated euro 150,000 (Shs 350 million).

In a concept paper, Inica says, "At the junction of Central and East Africa, the Great Lakes region - including the north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo (north and southern Kivu together with the Ituri of the Eastern Province), Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi - is one of the most complex and problematic regions of the African continent."

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and Swiss Agency for Development Co-operation are funding the investigation.

"This activity complements the observation process launched in the western basin, and will be generating information on cross-border dynamics and the analysis of key actors' strategies in the Great Lakes region aims at improving understanding of cross-border realities in the eastern basin," says the concept paper.

It adds, "The observatory will analyse and illustrate the significance of trade and identify the constraints that undermine trust between the peoples in the four countries.

Since 2003, Inica has initiated a number of discussions and actions to demonstrate the importance of regional links for the re-organisation of socio-economic and political life in the Great Lakes region."

Speaking at the press conference yesterday, Pierre Poret, the Head of Investment Division at the OECD's directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs said the organisation is encouraging Africa to use donor benchmarks as points of reference on good governance and creating the right investment climate.

These include zero tolerance to corruption.

But he quickly added that donors are not imposing their own conditions on poor countries.

"But we distinguish between broad principles of good governance. All the main principles of non competitive practices, fighting corruption were known by all the countries," Poret said.

In a broadside to arguments that Africa is underdeveloped and cannot implement good principles acknowledged by donors, Poret said "but Africa is developing fast that in five years time, parts of Africa would have developed than those in the West."

Damon and Poret spoke to The Monitor individually after a press conference at Mosa Courts in Kampala about today's conference. The conference brings together 20 African countries.

The Deputy Secretary General of the OECD will chair the conference on 'Investment for Africa's Development'.

President Yoweri Museveni will present a paper.

"For us in Africa to say that let us not have good governance, let us have something in between, we would be discouraging investment," Uganda Investment Authority Executive Director Maggie Kigozi said. "We can't continue to be different. We can't continue to have different standards."

The aim of the conference is to enable East Africa learn from other countries in Africa. "They should try to create the best climate, confidence in Africa will be higher, and perception in Africa will be good," said Poret.