Corruption costs the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at least $15 billion each year, or around three times its annual budget, according to President Joseph Kabila's anti-graft advisor. "It's an open secret that corruption exists and it is seriously eating away at institutions," Emmanuel Luzolo Bambi told the UN's news website Okapi.
"I have always said loud and clear that each year we lose at least 15 billion" from corruption and misappropriation of public funds, he said. The DRC, of which Kabila has been president since 2001, has the reputation of being one of the world's poorest, most volatile and graft-riddled countries.