|
The Institute for Ethics and Economic
Policy (IEEP) |
|
||
|
Lithuania prosecutors target 3 lawmakers in graft
case. Lithuanian prosecutors have asked the parliament to waive
the immunity of three lawmakers being investigated on claims of corruption.
In remarks to the legislature, Deputy Prosecutor General Gintaras Jasaitis
have asked lawmakers to waive the immunity of Social Democrat Vytenis
Andriukaitis, Social Liberal Party member Vytautas Kvietkauskas, and
Conservative Party member Arvydas Vidziunas, all of whom are being
investigated for allegedly seeking bribes to approve legislation beneficial
to businessman Andrius Janukonis, head of the Rubicon Group, a construction
and hardware store concern. (Dow Jones
Newswires,
LITHUANIANS BELIEVE BRIBES TO BE SOLUTION TO PROBLEMS:
POLL According to a poll conducted by local offices of Transparency
International with support from the US embassy, three-quarter of Lithuanians
believe bribes will help them solve their problems, only 18% of businessmen
and 21% of total population said they would refuse to give bribes, while
18-19% respectively were undecided.
Some 55 of Lithuanians had bribed doctors, while 44% of 800
businessmen questioned said they illegally paid sums to receive official
documents or registration. And almost a third had used bribes to secure
public tenders, the poll revealed. (Agence France Presse,
UN AGENCY TO COOPERATE IN CORRUPTION AWARENESS PROGRAM: On October 2, 2002 Lithuanian Special Investigation Service and UN Development Program sign a cooperation document to raise public awareness of corruption combat. Joint forces and information sharing help to fight corruption more efficiently. However, the study by Transparency International shows that corruption perception index, which was 4.8 points in 2001, has not improved for
Leader urges fight against corruption Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus has urged lawmakers to strengthen the fight against corruption. According a recent survey that was conducted by Transparency International, 76 percent of Lithuanians believed corruption was a problem and more than half thought political parties and the parliament itself were rife with corruption. The president has called on all parties and officials to finally “get rid of bad habits inherited from the Soviet past”. He also said that civil service legislation should be improved and a body created to oversee party financing with strict enforcement of a ban on corporate contributions. (Business Recorder (Reuters), April 3, 2002, summary by Sherldine Tomlinson).
SPEAKER CALLS FOR FASTER INVESTIGATION OF CORRUPTION CASES The Lithuanian parliamentary chairman, Arturas Paulauskas visited the domestic law enforcement agencies like Special Investigations Service, Prosecutor-General’s office, Customs Department and the Supreme Court to review their work/ accomplishments for the last year, and discussed the tasks/issues for the coming year. He accepted that the financing of law enforcement agencies was very “pathetic”, and that better financing was necessary for effectively working in rooting out embezzlement and corruption. Paulauskas, a prosecutor- general himself from 1995-1996, had urged all agencies to move quickly on cases pertaining to financial corruption and stop the widespread destruction of the national economy by bringing all suspected embezzlers of state funds to book. (Financial Times (BNS news agency) December 27, 2001, summary by Aruna Balakrishnan).
See link to Lihuanian independent anticorruption agency - http://www.stt.lt This is not in English. We thank A Paliusis for the suggestion.
The Index of Economic Freedom (by Driscoll-Holmes-Kirkpatrick) for 2001 places Lithuania in the “Mostly Free” category with a rank of 44 (Ranks range from 1 for Hong Kong to 155 for North Korea, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 1, 2000). H. D. Vinod’s trimmed correlation analysis indicates that countries free from economic regulation are less corrupt. After allowing for some exceptions by 20% trimming, the correlation is near 0.9.
Mr. Algimantas Kliunka, Senior Prosecutor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Investigation Division A. Smetonos 4, 2709 Vilnius LITHUANIA. Tel: (370-2) 610537 Fax: (370-2) 227283
|
|
||
|
Design: Theo den Brinker |
Copyright: Hrishikesh D.
Vinod 2000 |
Last Updated: |
|
