Africa: Fuel reserves oil the wheels of corruption

Corruption is costing Africa's oil industry billions of dollars annually says Peter Eigen, founder and chairman of Transparency International (TI) -- a non-governmental group based in Berlin which monitors and fights graft. He made the comment to journalists Friday at a gathering organised by TI South Africa in the commercial capital of Johannesburg. Eigen was in the country to attend the 18th World Petroleum Congress, a five-day meeting held in Johannesburg which attracted more than 4,000 delegates. Oil-rich Angola, Chad, Libya, Nigeria and Sudan all fared poorly on TI's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2004. This annual rating ranks various states according on the extent to which graft is viewed as having taken hold there.