Africa Tackles Graft, With Billions in Aid in Play - New York Times

Pouring money down a rathole lined with graft, corruption and malfeasance is worse than not giving at all. This pouring in of money and aid that is stolen or diverted to the pockets of thugs and criminals undermines the people's desire for their governments help to improve their lot. Bush is right in his position.

"But this new giving is increasingly dependent on proof that its recipients
are controlling corruption and governing wisely. Mr. Blair's Commission for
Africa, which he established last year, concluded in a report in March that
'without progress in governance,' including tackling corruption, 'all other
reforms will have limited impact.'

The United States has been even more
blunt: 'Countries like ours are not going to want to give aid to countries that are corrupt or don't hold true to democratic principles,' President Bush said last month after meeting with South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki."

Nigeria is a country used as an example of a miserable mess.

"Later audits disclosed scores of botched projects financed with hundreds of millions of dollars in international loans. Nigeria's government never even cleared the site for an $18 million construction project. Millions were spent on paper mills that never produced any paper. Eighteen projects costing $836 million were never completed; another 44 either never operated or were quickly shut down, the Nigerian Finance Ministry reported. Of 20 other projects started between 1985 and 1992, more than half had little
impact or were unsustainable, the World Bank concluded."