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The Institute for Ethics and Economic
Policy (IEEP) |
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Slovak Intelligence
Service found corruption in the ministries. The
Slovak intelligence service has found so far this year 70 cases of suspected corruption,
cronyism or lobbyism at ministries, the Government Office, Parliament or
local authorities. According the Slovak intelligence spokesman most of the
cases are related to the Interior Ministry.
SIS spokesman also said that they have evidence of police officers
taking bribes when issuing licenses and permits. Among the 70 cases, 12
concern the Finance Ministry where apparently, all the cases involved
employees of the Tax and Customs Directorate. (Slovensko, Slovak
state ex-officials charged with embezzlement. An investigator from the [Slovak]
Anti-corruption Office has charged six former members of the Presidium of the
National Property Fund and three former members of the National Property
Fund's Executive Committee. The charges concern the crime of embezzlement and
the violation of the binding rules of business relations. All of them
participated in the illegal sale of 13 companies to previously chosen
interested parties for a substantially reduced price. . (BBC Monitoring Service,
Anti-corruption Department Investigating Euro Entry Campaign. The
Slovak Government Office’s anti-corruption department has been investigating
the use of finances slated by the government for the information campaign
ahead of the referendum on SLOVAK REPUBLIC:
MOST SLOVAKS SCEPTICAL ABOUT CABINET'S CHANCES TO ERADICATE CORRUPTION-POLL A
phone poll held by the Polis agency on 822 respondents between 18-20 January
found that 72.9% of Slovak citizens is skeptical on a chance to successfully
curb corruption by the current government in its election term, blaming to
lack of interest among responsible bodies; insufficient public informing. The
survey also revealed that health sector topped the most corrupted sector
list, 69.1% respondents followed by were Courts, 57.8%; Police, 44.1%;
Education, 38.2% and Prosecution, 21.2%.
(BBC Monitoring Service 22 Jan 2003, summary by Hanh Vu).
EU CONCERNED ABOUT LEVEL OF CORRUPTION It was reportd that the level of
corruption in
EUROPEAN PROSPECT OF JOINING EU ENCOURAGES SLOVAKIA TO CONFRONT CORRUPTION.
The European Commission, which today pays an official visit to
Slovakia, will definitely find that situation has
improved since 1995. The influence of mafia is in decline and the number of
killings and bombings has dropped. Cases of official corruption are
regularly prosecuted. "We are going through a
Margaret Thatcher-type era in Slovakia. We have had to introduce tough
measures,"
Brigita Schmognerova, Finance Minister of the coalition Government,
says. However, according to Transparency International's corruption
ratings of 90 countries last year, Slovakia came a poor 52nd. Because
the culture of unchecked government spending and cronyism is being
slowly
reversed and because subsidies to the industrial sector have been cut
off,
20 per cent of the 5.4 million population has been left jobless. According
to Ivan Miklos, one of four deputy prime ministers, "Corruption is
a
problem in every country, but it is a bigger issue in transition countries
like
ours."(Source: TI, The Times -UK, February 21, 2001, summary by
Pavlidis
George). DEFENSE
MINISTER RESIGNS OVER CORRUPTION ALLEGATIONS Pavol
Kanis, Slovak Defense Minister, was accused of corruption as he financed the
construction of his house by funding from unaccountable sources. Kanis presented an audit of his personal
finances to President Rudolf Schuster and denied the allegations. He resigned on Tuesday and has been
replaced by Jozef Stank, the country’s former ambassador to the Czech Republic. (Central Europe News, Reuters, Jan. 2,
2001, summary by Marg Reynolds). Bratislava, EX-PREMIER CHARGED WITH UNLAWFUL DISTRIBUTION
OF BONUSES. After an investigation conducted by the
Slovak police, chief investigator Jaroslav Ivor
brought charges against ex-premier Vladimir Meciar. Mr. Vladimir Meciar
is
charged with having illegally distributed bonuses to members of the
former
cabinet. According to chief investigator Jaroslav Ivor, Mr. Meciar,
who
was Slovak premier in 1992-94 and 1994-98, had paid bonuses worth 13.7
million
crowns to his ministers. Mr. Meciar, who tried to legalize his conduct
by a cabinet resolution in 1995, faces now up to ten years in prison
for
abuse of power as a public official. (Source: Central Europe Online,
November
28, 2000, summary by Pavlidis George) The OECD anti-Corruption report for Slovak republic can be
found at http://www.oecd.org/daf/nocorruption/report.htm
The Index of Economic Freedom (by Driscoll-Holmes-Kirkpatrick) for 2001 places Slovak Republic in the “Mostly Free” category with a rank of 62 (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. |
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Design:
Theo den Brinker |
Copyright:
Hrishikesh D. Vinod 2000 |
Last
Updated: |
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