The ruling classes or ruling groups in a number of sub-Saharan African states use their control of the state machinery as a direct method of accumulating wealth. State finances are treated as personal finances, leading to a looting of the exchequer. This is particularly so with regard to foreign earnings, as from export of raw materials, and foreign aid. These personally looted monies are exported out of the country, leading to capital flight. As Kofi Annan put it, “Africa is suffering from multiple crises… Billions of dollars of public funds continue to be stashed away by some African leaders, even while roads are crumbling, health systems have failed, school-children have neither books nor desks nor teachers, and the phones do not work”.