02.05.2013 The telephone hotlines for reporting bribery and corruption are “dead”. Almost no one reports cases of corruption on telephone numbers especially opened in state institutions for that purpose. It is not known how many cases of suspected corruption have been reported on the special hotline 199 which was promoted as a national hotline for reporting bribery and corruption back in 2007. The officials in the Ministry of Interior, which operates the hotline and where you can report any case of corruption, claim that generally speaking, the number of calls has been reduced, but they do not specify how many of them have been counted as reported cases of bribe and corruption.
The survey, conducted by the Center for Investigative Journalism SCOOP Macedonia, showed that there is a weak interest in such reporting, which, on the other hand, is more common on the hotlines run by the NGOs. Experts explain this with the fact that citizens do not trust institutions and therefore do not report corruption, which does not mean it is not present.
No complaint of bribery or corruption has so far been registered in the call center of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, which has been operating since 2008. On the website of the Ministry it can be seen that there is a special corruption hotline, but so far it has been used by citizens to report all kinds of cases, but not corruption.
“People have used the hotline 15133 that we have in the Ministry in ignorance, for a variety of complaints. Most often people report irregularities in the work of enterprises, violation of workers’ rights or we have had calls referring to rights related to the field of social policy. Now we have more specialized hotlines for certain complaints and the frequency of calls on this hotline has been reduced”, says Zaklina Velickovska from MLSP. She claims that the calls are anonymous and there is a special procedure for reporting, as well as persons specifically authorized to act in case of reporting corruption.
The call center has been set up within the new Internal Control Department within the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy on 17.12.2008 by the act on internal organization of the Ministry, in accordance with the projected activities of the Government Action Plan 2007-2011.
The national corruption reporting hotline 199 on the website of the Ministry of Transport and Communications is the same run by the Ministry of Interior. Here you can report cases of any area, that is of any state institution. However, the Ministry of Interior does not specify how many of the reported cases have been complaints regarding bribery and corruption. The spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Ivo Kotevski explains that the hotline 199 for fight against corruption was opened on 22.09.2007. So far, over a period of nearly six years, a total of 3945 cases have been reported.
“In the beginning we had a lot of calls, since the campaign began, but now the citizens’ interest in reporting corruption has reduced, although they report everything – logging, complaints about state institutions, unfounded verdicts, etc. Calling has generally been reduced”, concludes Kotevski and adds that calls are anonymous and citizens can also report corruption electronically. When asked to clarify how many of the calls had involved bribery or corruption, Kotevski did not want to specify with an explanation that “it would demotivate citizens to call.” Although, according to him, lower interest may be due to the fact that other institutions have opened such hotlines, too and he mentioned the Customs.
The Customs’ recognizable number for reporting trafficking and corruption is 197 and it has been operating since November 2003. Specific numbers can be seen on the Customs’ web site, but there are fewer calls, too. Thus, in 2009 there were 176 calls regarding corruption and unprofessional behavior of customs officials, and last year for the period January-June 2012 this number was reduced to 42.
“The reduced number of calls for corruption implies reduced corruption”, explains Goran Zaturovski, superintendent of Customs. According to him, this trend of reduced calls results from the measures taken by the Macedonian Customs. In his opinion, campaigns also affect the increase or decrease of the corruption reports.
On the Public Revenue Office hotline where cases of corruption can be reported no one has called for corrupt behavior. However, this hotline has registered calls for other irregularities.
“In terms of complaints received on hotline 198 and via forms regarding the work of the employees, we have no registered corruption reported, or someone to report an employee for bribery or corruption. However, we have calls regarding unprofessional behavior of staff. Calling is anonymous and for all reported cases on this hotline, professional standards unit takes appropriate actions”, explains Vesna Novakovic, spokesman for the Public Revenue Office.
Neither students complain. No case of possible corruption or bribery has been reported to the Ministry of Education and Science, as well as to any of the offices for prevention and fight against corruption that the Ministry opened in 2010 at five state universities.
Students do not report bribery and corruption but delay of exams or other irregularities within the operating area of the Student Ombudsman”, said Kiril Spiroski, president of the Student Parliament. He “defends” himself that students, however, had more confidence to report the cases of corruption to the Student Ombudsman. However, he added, another anti-corruption campaign is necessary for the universities’ offices to increase interest in them.
The Ministry of Defense has appointed a person running the hotline 0800-50030 for reporting corruption as part of the project “Report Corruption”. The competent assure that here people can anonymously and free of charge report cases of bribery and corruption, and they can also do it electronically, although they can leave their personal data this way. But the interest in reporting these cases is weak although the hotline is relatively new, opened in February this year.
“Three applications have been received since this project was launched, one of which was support for the project, and the remaining two were applications for possible corruption. Past applications have not been received anonymously, but in the procedure for checking authenticity of the application, identity of the person who submitted the application is protected”, they say from the Ministry of Defense.
There is a person in charge of operating the hotline 080010100 for reporting corruption in the municipality of Aerodrom, but it is the same “story” over there – no calls for corruption.
“The hotline operated for a long time, but at times did not work. Therefore an Integrity System Policy has been adopted in the Municipality of Aerodrom since 01.11.2012, in which there is a Diagram of the process of reporting bribery, corruption and conflict of interests in the Municipality of Aerodrom and the same person is noted both for reporting bribery and corruption and the hotline”, says Sanja Bozhinoska from the Internal Audit Department in the Municipality of Aerodrom.
Unlike the practice in state institutions, non-governmental organizations have registered more calls for such cases. Within the “Report Corruption” of “Transparency International Macedonia” in the period from 1.09.2011 to 28.09.2012, a total of 227 applications were received, of which 199 relevant. Citizens complained of corrupt behaviors in various areas, including the urban, taxes, inspections/licenses, law enforcement, real estate, etc.
“The fact that there are no corruption charges on hotlines in the institutions does not mean that there is no corruption. On the contrary, there is and it is present a lot more than it was 5, 6 or 7 years ago. In this case it is about a loss of confidence in institutions because they do nothing either to solve the problem of corruption or help the citizens”, said Sladjana Taseva, President of “Transparency International Macedonia”. Taseva adds that their findings show that corruption is much more present, mentioning that in their organization the number of calls has increased compared to state institutions where there are either no or just few calls.
“For a hotline to function, it means to have results. In the beginning, when the Customs hotline started working, there were 5000 calls a month and the service was working 24 hours a day. There were other hotlines that had no calls. Obviously people are faced with a problem no one to accept them or to get no reaction. The number of applications in the Anti-Corruption Commission has been drastically reduced, i.e. four times. People have lost confidence in the Commission. When it was established we had 1200-1500 annual applications by citizens, and now that number has been reduced to 200 applications a year”, points out Taseva, ex-president of the Anti-Corruption Commission. In her opinion, the situation cannot be improved with campaigns and calls will be more frequent when the trust in institutions gets better.
As black spots of corruption she indicated the judiciary and the influences on it, then politics and the obstacles between politics and private sector, lack of independent media, politicization of administration. “The system of corruption is self-sustainable and can be broken only with independent media, civil society and reactions from outside,” commented Taseva.
The government campaign “Macedonia without Corruption” was launched in 2007 and it aimed to raise public awareness about corruption.
That year Macedonia was ranked 84th out of 179 countries according to the Corruption Perceptions Index of the international organization Transparency International. In 2008 the country jumped 12 positions and reached 72nd on the anticorruption scale out of 180 countries published by Transparency International. In 2009, according to the same ranking by Transparency International, Macedonia slightly shifted on 71st place which was commented as a mild improvement. According to the data by this NGO for the past years, Macedonia had the greatest progress in 2010 when it climbed to 62nd place in the competition of 178 countries. In the past two years, the country was ranked 69th by the Transparency International CPI, which was seven positions down compared to 2010.
Source: SCOOP Macedonia
