NGO says Serbia in top 30 of corrupt countries
Radio B 92 (Belgrade) via BBC Monitoring Service 19 Feb 2004
Belgrade, 18 February: Despite some improvements since the era of the Milosevic regime, corruption is still a problem in Serbia, says the international anti-corruption organization Transparency International.
In its annual list of countries where corruption is prevalent, Transparency ranks Serbia 27th, more than 60 places ahead of other countries in the region, such as Bosnia and Croatia, but behind such countries as Bangladesh, Nigeria and Haiti. The situation in Serbia is seen as a result of the lack of readiness by politicians to fight corruption, which is present predominantly in the health and education sectors.
Dobrivoje Radovanovic, director of the Institute for Criminological and Sociological Research, warns that the more dangerous forms of corruption, where politicians themselves are directly involved, often pass unnoticed.
"For example, if there is political interference in the judiciary or police, then members of a political party won't prosecute other members, and there's some financial interest behind it. This is one of the most frequent, most dangerous forms of corruption.
"We have concrete examples with the sugar scandal, where the responsible bodies needed a year to establish who had smuggled 10,000 tonnes of sugar, then manage to find 300 tonnes and blame some tiny company in Cacak," he said.
Germany's ambassador to Belgrade, Kurt Leonberger, believes that the people should take the initiative if politicians are not effective.
"In order to expose corruption as much as possible, the public need to [be] braver. I'm very disappointed when I hear someone complaining about corruption and then ask that person if they have reported it to the police, and I always get a negative answer," said Leonberger. Transparency International says that corruption should be sanctioned by adopting adequate legislation. But because of the present level of corruption, says the organization, many foreign investors are wary of coming to Serbia.
Source: Radio B92 text web site, Belgrade, in English 1735 gmt 18 Feb 04
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