DUSHANBE, December 10, 2008, Asia-Plus — A press conference organized by Tajikistan’s Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption and the UNDP CO Tajikistan and dedicated to International Anticorruption Day was held in Dushanbe yesterday afternoon.
The Tajik anticorruption agency chief Sherkhon Salimzoda and the UNDP Country Director Rastislav Vrbenski briefed reporters on activities of their organizations and answer questions of reporters.
Speaking at the press conference, Sherkhon Salimzoda, in particular, said that Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Indexes (CPI) bracketing Tajikistan with world’s most corrupt countries could be questioned. According to him, the corruption situation has much improved in the country in recent year.
Salimzoda noted that the anticorruption agency had conducted 962 inspections since the beginning of this year and a total damage caused to state by economic crimes over the report period had been estimated at 89.6 million somoni.
The totaled included 11.8 million somoni of embezzlement and misappropriation of state funds, 25.3 million somoni of tax evasions and 31.8 million somoni of losses and spoilages.
“1,145 officials have been reprimanded and 58 of them have been fired,” the anticorruption agency chief said.
Mr. Vrbenski, for his part, noted that corruption is a serious problem for all countries of the world and international cooperation is a vital element to fight corruption. It is corruption that destroys notions such as such respectability and justice, undermining moral principles. Corruption undermines democracy, becomes a breeding ground for instability of state system and impedes economic development of any state, the country director said.
As far as Tajikistan’s efforts to fight corruption are concerned, miracle will not occur in one day, however, readiness of Tajik authorities to work in this direction is obvious, he said.
