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Until we establish systematic means for dealing corruption the fight against corruption will not produce any results
 14.06.2010. Transparency International thru the recommendations contained in the annual reports of the Corruption Perception Index has a very active role within national chapters. Besides the global CPI, TI has a very active role in monitoring anti-corruption policies and in formulating the recommendations for the government, in the case of our country, thru Transparency Zero Corruption.
“The progress reports for the countries aspiring to join the European Union prepared by the European Union contain independent report regarding the progress in the fight against corruption that is being prepared by us and than recommended to the Commission. They make their independent analysis, but also take into account the recommendations that we offer to the report”, says Aupperle for Anticorruption.
Therefore each country, especially Macedonia, as a long time candidate for negotiations with the Union, should consider these reports very seriously and should focus on improving the fight against corruption, as it is one of the main directions according to which the country should orientate”, adds Aupperle.
“Most accession countries have adopted many good laws in recent years. The legal framework is often very good. However, the challenge is to enforce them in practice. Just passing a new law is maybe a good publicity tool, but if you don’t implement it, it remains of limited use.”, says Aupperle.
Aupperle is on the opinion that the reason because of which the Reports of Transparency International are not being taken as seriously as the reports of the European Union (which as mentioned above rely on TI analysis) lies in the powers and the respect the Commission has.
Our annual reports should not be compared with one another. Governments have this practice as they might have liked the position on which their country was placed in a certain report, but it has to be born in mind that the Report of the Commission contains detailed and documented analysis for their progress of a country in all fields” clarified Aupperle.
Aupperle emphasized that if the fight against corruption is to be productive the Government should actually want to tackle this problem. Strong, clear and thorough laws are essential in order to achieve this.
“Macedonia as a candidate country for negotiations for EU accession should not allow the existence of areas for legal manipulations and should aspire towards well structured and implemented legal acts. In order for this to occur the EU should not be sending constant reminders to the country, but the country on its own should have the will to produce changes. EC can press on and give advice, but if the country actually desires to access the Union and to achieve European standards it should aspire towards its own reforms”, advices Aupperle. He adds that the media can play a very important role in the fight against corruption as well.
Aupperle says that besides the global report, TI on the local level in Macedonia, and in other countries have opened advocacy centers where people can report corruption and can obtain free legal advice for further actions if found in situation related to corruption. “We are gathering these cases and on these bases we pin point the places that are most fragile and prune to corruption” adds Aupperle.
“If we receive complaints only from people that were in a situation where they were asked for bribes by the police, this means that something is not right with the police and then we focus on finding ways and recommendations for prevention of corrupt behavior by the police”, says Aupperle.
Aupperle adds that TI as a nongovernmental organization does not have mandate to conduct investigations, although one of the future plans that are about to occur in TI is larger transparency and public debates for specific large scale cases of corruption.
“Sometimes you need an exceptionally important case, a case for which strong evidences are available, in order to achieve a change in the society. That is what TI is doing more and more – for example in France, where TI filed a suit against former African Heads of State that stole millions of Euro and brought it to French bank accounts.”, says Aupperle for Anticorruption.
“In order to achieve an aspired goal we cannot always act in a diplomatic manner, and in certain situations we need to speak up the entire truth publicly”, add Aupperle.
According to Aupperle, in order to succeed in effective fight against corruption, the anticorruption body in the country should be independent. However, if there is an autonomous agency for fighting corruption, an agency that is independent from all types of powers in the country, including legislative, executive and judicial state powers, this agency should be given the jurisdiction to conduct investigations on its own, especially on high profile cases without any pressures from outside.
Aupperle emphasizes that the fight against corruption does not start with actions against corrupted high profiled official and public figures, as if we truly want success in the fight against corruption we need to consider the local level, the places on which no one pays any attention, as corruption happens in these areas too. Until we establish systematic means for dealing corruption the fight against corruption will not produce any results, concludes Aupperle.
Source: Anticorruption
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