Interfax: Work on counter-corruption mechanism not completed in Russia – Transparency International

MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) – The director of the Transparency International office in Russia, Yelena Panfilova, said that Russia’s 127th place on the Berlin-based organization’s 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index was to be expected.

The authorities did not sort out the issue of protecting people who report corruption-related crimes, and the work on a mechanism that would allow civil society to contribute to the fight against bribery has not been completed, she said.

“The state should not combat corruption all on its own. Government agencies are confident that they hold a monopoly on any forms of oversight and monitoring,” Panfilova said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Russian law enforcement agencies focus on high-profile cases that receive broad media coverage, but they often fail to bring these inquiries to a conclusion, she said.

“It seems to us that, regrettably, showcase measures have become a priority of the country’s counter-corruption drive. Society and analysts start to applaud when a suitcase full of jewelry is confiscated, but no one knows whether or not an investigation will follow,” she said.

As an example, Panfilova referred to the criminal inquiry that was recently opened against former Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. She called it a Forsyte Saga-style case.

“It is unclear whether it is a women’s fiction book or a genuine corruption case,” Panfilova said.

Serdyukov currently faces a criminal investigation opened on the counts of negligence. Denmark and New Zealand shared the rating’s top spot with 91 points out of 100. They were followed by Sweden and Finland, which scored 89 points each. The rating’s third place was shared by Norway and Singapore, which were assigned 86 points each.

According to Panfilova, this result was to be expected because counter-corruption measures have generally been successful in Scandinavian countries.

Russia’s neighbors in the Corruption Perceptions Index include Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Nicaragua, Mali, Madagascar, Lebanon, Gambia and the Commodore Islands.

The United States ranked 19th with 73 points.

Somalia, Afghanistan and North Korea are among the most corrupt states in the world, each scoring just eight points out of 100 in Transparency International’s 2013 ranking, where a score of 100 corresponds to a total lack of corruption.