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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 06:16

Transparency International: corruption prevention measures in Latvia beyond any criticism

BC, Riga, 19.02.2016.Print version
Corruption prevention measures in Latvia are extremely inefficient, which is why not only must salaries be raised for corruption prevention officers, but the entire system has to change, as Gundars Jankovs, director at Transparency International – Latvia, told LETA in commenting on Prosecutor General Eriks Kalnmeiers' statement yesterday that the authorities' measures against bribery were satisfactory.

Jankovs agrees with the other part of Kalnmeiers' presentation – that the average salary at the police is low, while the job the police do is hard and demanding. Furthermore, many officers are overworked as the police are understaffed.

 

Jankovs emphasizes that officers investigating criminal cases have to always present hard, compelling evidence, even in order to prove something that is obvious. "If something is black, the officers have to present evidence that it is indeed black," said Jankovs, adding that this had to change.

 

When asked to comment on the recent media reports about the Financial Police officers' surprising wealth, Jankovs emphasizes that there are a lot of names, companies and schemes that the authorities know about, yet nothing is being done about it. "I have a feeling that they, the State Revenue Service, are waiting for the media to come and give them full information on a silver platter, or put the service in such a tight corner that it will have no choice but finally solve the problem. The same goes for the State Police – the authorities should be more proactive," stressed Jankovs.

 

"Overall, I would say that anti-corruption measures in the country are beyond any criticism, and I cannot agree with what Mr. Kalmeiers said. I would rather say that everything is very bad," stressed Jankovs.

 

Jankovs went on to say that the main corruption prevention authority in Latvia, the Corruption Prevention Bureau, is preoccupied with squabbles among the bureau's officials, and there is little to no progress with corruption prevention measures. He believes that the Corruption Prevention Bureau should stop being involved in minor cases too much, and pay much more attention to the major corruption cases, political corruption, as well as work on an international scale, as contemporary large-scale corruption schemes are all international.

 

Jankovs hopes that the Internal Security Bureau, established last November, will succeed at ousting dishonest officials from the authorities. It is also important that the Internal Security Bureau and Corruption Prevention Bureau cooperate closely, and that the minor cases be turned over to the Internal Security Bureau so the Corruption Prevention Bureau could focus more on the major cases.

 

Jankovs also points out that Maris Kucinskis' government declaration makes no mention of battling corruption. This suggests that reducing corruption is not a priority to the new government, or that it is unaware of or fails to realize the damage that corruption does to the national economy.

 

As reported, Kalnmeiers said yesterday that the law enforcement authorities' measures against bribery were satisfactory, yet battling bribery must not stop.

 

171 pretrial proceedings on bribe taking, misappropriation, mediating and giving bribes were completed last year – up from 144 in 2014, said Kalnmeiers. A total of 188 persons have been charged in these cases.

 

246 offences involving bribery were registered last year, or three offences more than in 2014.

 

Corruption is a pressing problem in not only Latvia but everywhere in the world, added Kalnmeiers.






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