Corruption - The New Epydemics
There is no country in the world that is totally immune to corruption. The tragedy lies, however, in the fact that in the SEE region, i.e. in out "transition" states, the corruption has turned into an epydemics.
Transparency International defines corruption as an abuse of acquired power and authority for personal gains. As such, the corruption leads to distortion of all rules of fair competition and, if applied often, to waste of resources, alredy scarce in the developing countries. Tha only contributes to the general disregard for the basic needs of the population and increase of wide-spread poverty. Even the most conservative estimates are that the systemic corruption contributes to the increased public spending by 20-25% and is often a reason for procurement of goods and services of sub-standard quality, economically unfounded investments and unnecessary procurement deals. If not stopped in time, or at least controlled, the corruption moves in a single direction, and that would be upward. The corruption, in all forms, is not unified for all countries. In China, for instance, the problem is in the bureaucracy which commercializes its administrative competences, while Europe suffers from the lack of transparency in the public procurement practices or the financing of political parties. Nonetheless, they all have something in common. There are not too many governments and countries that can actually criticize the others about the corruption. Even Singapoor, officially one of the least corrupt countries in the world, has some corruption involved in its public policies. Fortunately, it doesn't imply that there is no lasting solution for the corruption. The corruption finds the best background for its development and prosperity in rigid systems, with multiple restriction and existing government monopolies. That is not the case, however, in teh transition countries. In Eastern Europe, the chief source of corruption is not the inflexibility of the system, but the insecurity that surrounds it. The transition systems suffer from lack of legitimacy and institutional strength, which is a result of the delicate and insufficiently developed administrative and political structures. Business-people and all citizens in general that found themselves living and working in such systems, seek security through disregard for the legal economy and choose illegal methods to secure their investments from the competition and the state. This corruption is nothing more that a gentle nudge on the state officials and public servants to "avert their gaze someplace else." That not only weakens the state, but it renders it irrelevant. The outcome of this destructive trend is the limited and minimal role that the markets have in the creation of the economic policies of the state. There is an evident growth of corruption in the world, in spite of the empirical data on the destructive effects it has. When the decisions are motivated by personal and ulterior motives, disregarding the consequences for the state or the general public interests, the price of the economic, social and political development becomes too high. For these reasons, fighting corruption is not just a moral struggle against the "evil" of corruption, but a practical tool for unimpeded social development. The issue of anti-corruption is gaining on importance over the past several years. The UN Convention Against Corruption, adopted in December 2003 in Mexico, is the first global instrument that lists a wide array of anti-corruption measures to be adopted on national level. The Convention also aims to increase the international cooperation in terms of prevention of corruption and strengthen the fight against it. The Convention ought to be ratified by 30 UN member states to enter into force, and the estimates are that it could happen sometimes in 2005. The role of the civil sector in the fight against corruption can be important. Alas, only a small number of NGOs have received support for the different forms and possibilities of anti-corruption action. The potential of civic action lies in the creation of instruments for analyses and control of the public institutions and education of the citizens to recognize and identify corruption. Bosnia and Herzegovina Lamentably, Bosnia and Herzegovina is known in the world for the war that ravaged the country in the first half of the 1990's. All global media reported the serious situation of this small European country and emphasized the interethnic hatred of its nations. After the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina opened a new chapter of its history and started to a difficult period of destruction, in every conceivable sense. Slowly, but steadily, the country and its communities try to live normal lives that would bring them prosperity over time. Unfortunately, the nations in B&H have had little opportunity to influence the things mentioned above, in spite of the fact that, like the other coutnries in Europe, they have a political leadership that should make that happen. There has been some progress, but the overall impression is that much more should have been done. What is the problem, actually? A small word is the single most common utterance in B&H over the past ten years, mostly in relation to government, politicians, economy, the society in general. Another plague that ravages the country - the Corruption! Corruption is so wide-spread in Bosnia and Herzegovina today that we could list it, together with the flag and the anthem, as one of teh national simbols. It has placed its mark on all spheres of public life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as shown in the numerous corruption affairs and scandals registered and reported since the end of the war. Croatia* According to Transparency International, Croatia is listed on 47th place among the 90 countries included in the latest survey of the corruption of public services in the world. They survey of the World Bank shows that Croatia is, on average, less corrupt than the other transition countries, with the classical "administrative" corruption (presenting a clerk with an envelope filled with cash) at a slightly lower level than the corruption in policy-making and the judiciary. A public opinion survey conducted by Transparency International Croatia in 2003 showed that the healthcare system, the judiciary and the local self-government lead the list of most corrupt institutions, while the Government, the Sabor (Parliament), Privatization Fund, the Police, Universities and the military are also mentioned as highly corrupt. There are two independent initiatives in Croatia at this moment that try to reduce the level of corruption in the society. One initiative is made of Transparency International and the Domovina-Dijaspora Association (Homeland-Diaspora) and they try to systematically increase the transparency of operations of the public institutions, the right to access to information and judicial ethics. At the web-site www.transparency.hr, one can report individual corruption cases with total anonymity guaranteed, and soon the Advisory Centre for Fighting Corruption will open. The initiative announced as its future project the monitoring of the financing of political parties and election campaigns, which officially recognizes and addresses the social layers and mechanisms that are the most responsible for the "conspiracy theory" scenarios. Macedonia The corruption is very much present in the daily lives of the citizens of Macedonia for quite a while, yet, the idea of anti-corruption action has no great history in the country. To be precise, it started with the adoption of the Law for Prevention of Corruption and the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2002 (the Commission recently criticized the Government for its lack of will to deal with the corruption). According to the international representatives in Macedonia, the corruption remains to climb up on the list of the most serious problems Macedonia faces. The Anti-corruption Commission faces problems in its functioning and impediments related to its place, role, tasks and legislation that it needs to complete its function. For those reasons, the Commission accused the Governmetn that the Law on Prevention of Corruption was adopted in a form that doesn't yield any results in the fight against the corruption, and its main purpose was to presenting some legislation on that field to the international community. Public opinion polls in Macedonia show that the awareness of the problem and how serious it is is on the rise. On the other hand, the actual knowledge about the essence of the problem, the forms in which it may appear remains at a relatively low level. In spite of the evident rise of corruption, the number of charges brought and procedures started for corruption related offences is insignificant. The accusations for corruption for high ranking officials and public office holders is more of a political game than a result of a clear position taken by the citizens. The NGO sector in Macedonia is organized in the "Macedonia without Corruption" coalition. Lamentably, the non-governmental organizations' capacities to take anti-corruption action are quite limited. Only a fraction of all NGO have received real training on the forms and possibilities for anti-corruption action, which doesn't mean that there is no interest for it. Serbia The dictionaries define corrupt, adj. as dishonest, open to bribery, immoral, perverted. When we speak of corruption on macro levels of a state, we think of bribery, conflicting interests of those involved in public offices, the expedience of in court realization of contracts and agreements, all sorts of abuse of public funds (bad privatization practices, political parties' financing, illegal construction, administrative and bureaucratic obstacles). The corruption destroys the principle of equality of all citizens in front of the Law and the healthy market competition. NGO and the local government representatives emphasize, at all debates, seminars and discussions they organize, that the success of the coming transition in Serbia will largely depend on the changed relationship towards corruption. The same demand is presented by the latest international standards which demonstrate that the positions on this problem in the world are rapidly changing. Through their emphasis on the important institutional mechanisms for prevention of corruption (regular elections, privatization, system of checks and balances for the government, independent judiciary and media and developed civil society), they promote the education of the public and social marketing to help the citizens understand the price of the corruption. At the moment, there are two Laws in Serbia to regulate this field: the Law on Financing of Political Parties and the Law on Prevention of Conflicts of Interests in Public Offices. The competent Government body is the Commission on Public Procurement. Kosovo** Despite public perceptions and reports in the media, corruption in Kosovo does not appear to be as pervasive and detrimental to the delivery of public services as is alleged. Hard evidence of systemic corruption has not been collected and investigated by Kosovar or UNMIK law enforcement agencies nor has the alleged connection between organized crime, trafficking, smuggling and corruption been clearly documented. Moreover, as indicated by comparative survey results, Kosovo's corruption problem is not as well developed or as pervasive as in neighbouring countries. Much work has been accomplished in establishing an operational governing authority across the wide range of public services. This has involved the development of laws, procedures, systems and institutions. Most are still in their incipient stages. It is critical that attention be paid now to how governance procedures and systems, which may be state-of-the-art, are implemented, bureaucrats and supervisors trained in them, and their performance tracked and monitored. While they may appear tamper-proof on paper, ways to subvert these systems have already been found and it is critical that these gaps and loopholes be plugged quickly to avert further abuse. As well, many existing governance procedures still leave excessive discretion to bureaucrats and need to be brought to the next level of detail. Years of suppression under Milosevic's totalitarian regime developed a tolerance among the majority of people to uncontrolled arbitrariness of the government and pessimism about the mission of government to serve in the public interest. The international administration that has been governing Kosovo for several years has not put a priority on citizen participation in decision-making processes or on transparency and accountability in government. Now, with more governmental power and responsibilities transferred to Kosovars, there is a need to educate citizens on their rights and government responsibilities and to promote their active participation in keeping government accountable to prevent further abuses by government. --------- *) To read the longer commentary on corruption in Croatia, by our editor Andrija Vranic, click here. **) To read the USAID report on corruption in Kosovo, click here. |
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