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Bribes Amount to Third of State Budge
Thursday, 3 July 2008Approximately $33.5 billion is paid annually in bribes by big companies to corrupt officials, while the total amount of funds grafted by officials employed at different levels of the bureaucratic hierarchy is roughly a third of the state budget, or $120 billion, according to reports published at a recent meeting of the Investigation Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.
The committee’s chairman, Alexander Bestrykin, revealed that in the first quarter of this year, the committee opened 1,020 criminal probes into bribe-taking, compared to only 2,067 for the whole of 2006.
“Half of the cases are against regional authorities, judges, prosecutors, and even State Duma and Federation Council members,” Bestrykin was quoted by news agencies as saying.
Sixteen thousand corruption-related crimes have been reported so far this year, he said. The number of reported incidents was up 9.4 percent for the first three months of this year compared to 2007.
President Dmitry Medvedev has repeatedly pledged to take serious steps in eradicating corruption, including in his last address at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
One of the measures that the Kremlin has taken to fight corruption is the setting up of an anti-corruption council. Medvedev, who will chair the council, has said that its paramount task is “to establish an independent judicial system that corresponds to the level of economic development.”
Another governmental measure is the implementation of a database of property details to help to prevent tax evasion.
There are varying views on the causes of the high level of corruption in Russia.
Several years ago the general opinion was that officials took bribes out of the need to supplement their meager state wages. During the last two years the government has significantly increased the salaries of officials at various levels.
Last month the government announced that 20 million Russians still live in poverty with a monthly income that is lower than the minimal wage, which currently stands at 4,300 rubles ($183).
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic party once said that officials in Russia even take bribes from their wives and children.
Sixty-eight percent of leading Russian businessmen and CEOs of large companies see corruption as a major problem, according to a recent survey conducted by the Russian School of Economics and Vedomosti newspaper.
The survey, supported by the Ministry of Economic Development, examines how leading businessmen see the country developing by 2020. After corruption, the main problem cited was an inefficient judicial system. The most serious danger in Russia cited by top businessmen was however stagnant demography rates and low educational standards.
No serious external threats to the country were perceived by the respondents. According to the survey, growing protectionism in developed Western countries, decreasing oil prices and global inflation do not represent a serious threat to Russia — only 17 to 24 percent of Russian businessmen expressed concern over these problems.
Some Russian businessmen believe that citizens who offer money to officials should be immune from criminal prosecution on the condition that they report the case to the police.
“The whole hierarchy of the bureaucracy needs to be changed,” said one businessman on condition of anonymity when asked about the problem of corruption.
Nevertheless, not many Russian oligarchs are as honest as Boris Berezovsky. The London-based exile once admitted that many prospered in Russia because officials sold them public assets for a fraction of their value, considering the property they were selling to be “no man’s land.”
Neil Cooper of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce in Moscow indicated corruption and bureaucracy as two of the main concerns for investors in an interview with the Moscow News weekly, adding that, “At the moment, the positives of investing in Russia far outweigh the negatives.”
The fight against corruption is an ongoing battle in many countries around the world.
In 2007, Russia was ranked 143rd out of 179 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International, a global NGO that campaigns against corruption. According to the survey, 17 percent of respondents said they had paid bribes in Russia in order to procure a service.
Some experts believe the key cause of the growth of corruption in Russia is a lack of control over the bureaucracy. Sociologist Georgy Satarov, director of the INDEM research group, said there is a lack of external control mechanisms over the government, political opposition and independent press in Russia.
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