The Economic Chamber of North Macedonia and Transparency International – Macedonia will joint the efforts in the fight against corruption. This is foreseen within the signed Cooperation Agreement between the President of the Economic Chamber of North Macedonia, Branko Azeski, and the President of Transparency International- Macedonia, Blagoja Pandovski.
Corruption, as Azeski said, has been among the Chamber’s five priorities in the last three years. Wherever there are “bottlenecks”, he added, there are opportunities for corrupt behavior. It is necessary, he said, to check all indications of corruption in order to prevent it.
– Corruption is a serious problem everywhere. I can confirm that since I can remember, corruption scandals have been everywhere. It is a difficult process and if corruption could be resolved as we wish, it would be resolved and would not wait for us as a generation to come. For a long time, it seems like we have not had a strategy to do something more in terms of suppressing corruption, although we have enough organizations working in that field. I have been to hundreds of international conferences and the corruption was not on their agenda. You can ask questions about whatever you want and there will be a debate, but not about corruption. It is probably rooted in the Balkans and the fight against it should become a priority in everyone’s daily work, said Azeski after signing the Agreement.
He emphasized that he does not believe that the state does not have enough funds and opportunities to solve the problems with the “bottlenecks” at the border crossings in order to eliminate the possibility of corrupt behavior.
-We are involved in all the processes that the state is doing in the fight against corruption, but I believe that there is no precise and clear mini-program for the priorities that will lead us to a situation where we can take the necessary step to gain the sharpness needed to focus on things and eliminate them, Azeski pointed out.
The President of Transparency International- Macedonia, Mr. Pandovski emphasized the cooperation that the organization had with the Chamber dating from 2007 in the , and some of the collaborations date back to 2007 when they collaborated in the development of the Code of Business Ethics, the Code of Business Ethics for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and the Zero Tolerance for Corruption Project.
-At the beginning of last year, when the National Integrity System was released, the business sector was included among the 15 pillars that were assessed and their role in the fight against corruption. The business sector can contribute to corruption, can always participate in corruption, but with good integrity and good behavior it can also prevent it. We believe that by signing this agreement, we will work on the part of fighting corruption in the business sector, on increasing the integrity of representatives from the business sector, which would have a significant impact on the prevention of corruption in the country, said Pandovski.
