References: Article 5 de la Loi n°1/ 07 du 10 septembre 2002 portant révision de la loi sur l'organisation de la privatisation des entreprises publiques.

References: Article 8 de la loi N°1/ 07 du 10 septembre 2002 portant révision de la loi sur l'organisation de la privatisation des entreprises publiques.

References: Interview with businessmen

Peer Review Comments: Privatization was halted in the 90s and is just beginning to be used as a tool again.

References: Article 5 de la loi N°1/ 07 du 10 septembre portant révision de la loi sur l'organisation de la privatisation des entreprises publiques.

References: Interview with a member of the budgetary commission in the National Assembly.

Interview with Aster Girukwigomba, a former minister of finances currently a private consultant.

References: Article 5 de la loi N°1/ 07 du 10 septembre 2002 portant révision de la loi sur l'oganisation de la privatisation des entreprises publiques.

References: Interview with Dismas Baransaka, economist, private consultant and former director general of the planning of development and reconstruction, Aug. 27, 2007, in Bujumbura.

Interview with businessmen, Aug. 27, 2007, in Bujumbura.

Peer Review Comments: I consider this a bit optimistic, especially for smaller scale and less well-connected businessmen.

References: Interview with Dismas Baransaka, economist, private consultant and former director general of the planning of development and reconstruction, Aug. 27, 2007, in Bujumbura.

Interview with businessmen, Aug. 27, 2007, in Bujumbura.

Peer Review Comments: For one outside of the capital, it costs time and money.

Peer Review Comments: A bit optimistic, as well, given the real-life costs of everything: the time spent waiting and coming back, copying, hoping you got the real information, maybe bribing the right person to get it, figuring out who the right person really is, and so on.

The problem with many of these questions is that they are very theoretical, essentially transplanting a Western model of public integrity to Burundi. But the place does not work at all in that manner. The state is far too weak, the ambient poverty too high, the level of civil service too low, and the rule of law too absent, to make any of these mechanisms, even if they exist, a true mechanism of transparency and counter-power for all. Partly, this is deliberately maintained by those who benefit from it (among other means, through widespread corruption), and partly it is also the result of many other, deeper economic and social factors.