DUSHANBE, May 29, Asia-Plus — An active work of the anticorruption agency has not yet been seen in Tajikistan, Ms. Svetlana Savitskaya, the Transparency International (TI) program coordinator in Berlin, remarked at the seminar entitled “Civil Society and Fight against Corruption” in Dushanbe on May 28.
In the meantime, the Corruption Perception Index for 2006 ranked Tajikistan 9th among 163 countries, and the Corruption Perception Index for 2007, when the anticorruption agency was established in the country, ranked Tajikistan 5th.
Commenting on this paradox, Ms. Savitskaya stressed that active work of Tajikistan’s Agency for the State Financial Control and Combating Corruption has not yet been felt in the country. But she added that proper formation and development of the anticorruption agency take several years.
Ms. Savitskaya noted that the rating results are determined assessments of 14 various sources representing 12 independent organizations.
Tajik political scientist Parviz Mullojonov holds that one of reasons for inefficient work of the anticorruption agency is the fact that it is the aw enforcement agency and it duplicates functions of other law enforcement agencies such the Ministry of Interior and the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
“When international organizations shared with us an idea to set up this institution they hoped that it will be an organ working out strategy of the fight against corruption,” said the expert. “In the meantime, the anticorruption is not engaged in revealing reasons for corruption in the country.”
The anticorruption agency representative Sharifbek Sharifov did not agree with those views. “Our activity is multisided – we work out the strategy and conduct an active information policy, carrying out explanatory work,” Sharifov said.
According to him, officers from the anticorruption agency detain on average three persons per day for corruption-related offences. “But effectiveness of our activity should not be determined increase in the number of detained persons.”
