9 December is celebrated as international day of combat against corruption

Posted by: admin | Posted on: Декабрь 9, 2014

Upon the UN initiative 9 December is celebrated as international day of combat against corruption. Today is an important day for one of the global organizations with the mandate to combat corruption – Transparency International, including its national chapter in Azerbaijan – Transparency Azerbaijan.

Transparency International gives a broad definition of corruption as “abuse of office for private gain”. Corruption shall not be defined in a narrow sense as bribery in the public sector only. It also covers abuse of office for private gain by officials in the public, business and civil society. Corruption is one of the main obstacles for economic development of a country. The government is not the only actor responsible for the combat against corruption. Joint efforts of the government, business and civil society are required to overcome corruption.

In the past several years the government took important steps to combat corruption. ASAN service centers and electronic services serve as good examples here. Over two million applicants to the ASAN centers and over 1.5 million users of e-services stand as direct positive results of these reforms. However, we still have long way to go. ASAN service centers shall create ASAN business service line to meet requirements of businesses, whereas social services shall become a priority in further development of e-services. Alongside with this, increasing transparency in the sensitive area of public procurement will help to combat “invisible” corruption and bring tangible savings to the public budget. Business circles shall be interested in increasing transparency of the business sector. Increasing transparency in the licensing process for the business services shall be prioritized. The citizens, in their turn, shall become intolerant towards corruption and protect their rights by appealing to respective public agencies and civil society organizations.

We strongly believe that the key to this struggle’s success is a further enhancement of the joint efforts already carried out by the Government, the civil society, the business community and the citizens of Azerbaijan.