Interdepartmental Body for Coordination of Activities against Corruption Holds Constitutive Session

At the constitutive session of the Interdepartmental Body for Coordination of Activities against Corruption, held at the Government on Tuesday, EU Ambassador Michalis Rokas said that corruption was a big challenge, adding that accelerated change was needed to reach the reforms.

As he also assessed, though there have been over the past period encouraging activities with regards to fighting corruption, what’s needed is a change of the mental frame of both institutions and individuals.

Nicole Varnes, Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy, sent a similar message, stressing also that the slow solving of judicial cases was eroding confidence. In that regard, she underlined the importance of strengthening judicial organs, saying it required reforms, activities, and, first and foremost, political will.

“Without this, inefficiency will violate progress”, Deputy Chief of Mission Varnes added.

PM Hristijan Mickoski believes institutions already have competences, but what they were missing was coordination. He said he was adamant that the Body would not be “just another administrative construction”.

“We will not allow the fight against corruption to stay on paper. We will follow concrete results. We will set indicators and be making them public. There are no longer untouchables. There is no more ‘he’s one of ours’. I personally, as the PM, will be part of every report-related activity, meeting, assessment. I will be the most vocal supporter of the body, but, if it doesn’t produce results, also its biggest criticiser”, the PM noted.

The Head of the OSCE Mission, Ambassador Kilian Wahl, too, was part of the session, stressing that the fight against corruption should be founded on three pillars: implementation of laws, education, and institutional cooperation and coordination.

He expressed concern because according to the preliminary results of the implementation of the National Strategy on Fighting Corruption, presented in February of this year by the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption (SCPC), 18% of activities planned for 2024 were carried out.