07.12.2012 in Skopje, has been organized a conference where representatives of the State anti-corruption commission , NGOs , the Ministry of justice, the private sector and international organizations OSCE and UNDP were gathered together for the first time on the same table ,while celebrating The world anti-corruption day, 9th of December. As stated on the conference, Macedonia has improved in the fight against corruption, but still notifications are given concerning the poor implementation of the laws.
Based on a research conducted by OSCE and State anti-corruption commission, managing the perception of corruption in the fields of education and sport, public administration, media and civil society, the overall conclusion is that the corruption is omnipresent.
On the question of valorization of the level of corruption in the three of the fields mentioned in comparison with the past 4 years, the percentage of those who claim that corruption has been reduced is higher , stated Mira Dimovska, member of the commission . According to her this data is a sign for a positive trend we should hold on to.
‘A majority of the citizens believe that the Government is putting an effort in the fight against corruption , even though a serious remark that the fight is selective, nonobjective and unjust was pointed out , which is a serious problem ’ proclaimed Dimovska.
The research conducted on 1 080 randomly chosen citizens was organized by the agency Rejting .
‘From these 3 fields of corruption the citizens percept the public administration as the most corrupted on national and local level, the second most corrupted are the media, and the third is the education, farther on, the NGOs and sport , especially professional sport particularly connected with the leadership team of the sport clubs. In the sector of education the highest level of corruption is percepted in the higher education domain. Considering the media and the NGOs people recognize the partization and politicization as indicators of corruption.’ said Dimovska.
Citizens were asked if they had some experience with bribery. 99 percent of the respondents answered that they have never had direct experience, which notifies the fact that, compared to some other countries; this form of corruption is not so extended. At this point, some other forms of corruption are more current. Citizens stated that the bribery is asked for as much as it is offered, and it’s given through indirectly as much as it’s given face-to-face . “Money are given as a corruptive action” – stated Dimovska.
There was an announcement that the project will continue and that the commission will be active in the other sectors also , in cooperation with OSCE and Transparency International.
Hundred and thirty initiatives have been registered on behalf of The anti-corruption commission to the Public Prosecution, even though the percentage of their realization is low. Asked to comment on this, Dimovska said that the rule of law means that the named institution should complete its part of the job, including good investigation and gathering of all the evidences.
‘We are not in a position to carry out that work, since we are not a competent authority for the issue mentioned nor we have the logistics for analyzing all of the cases , so that the procedure could go further with prosecution , with becoming a court matter and finally satisfying the justice. It was mentioned today that no institution could handle this problem on its own. It is better if appealed to every institution qualified for resolving. ‘declared Dimovska
Slagjana Taseva pointed out that together we can fight against corruption. ‘Concerning the index released yesterday it is obvious that Republic of Macedonia , this year as well , is placed below the half of the listed countries with 43 points, which indicates that we still have a lot of work to do in the battle against corruption.”
“We have some achievements in legislation and in the constitution of the institutions, but the law has to be implemented and an opportunity has to be given to the institutions to work independently and to fulfill their role and obligations imposed by law”-stated Taseva.
The key element which Republic of Macedonia doesn’t have in the battle against corruption is the political will.
The representative of EU, Robert Liddle notified that all the companies and institutions are responsible to carry on the battle against corruption. He reviewed the positive Progress report for Republic of Macedonia distinguishing that the fight against corruption is one of the main tasks for every county with European perspective.
Mile Boshkov, president of the Business confederation marked that, in order to strengthen the fight against corruption, Business ethics code has to be published to raise the conscience of the employers. “There is a high level of perception for the corruption in public supplies, healthcare, license proceedings.” he said.
