Embassy News

Parliamentary Committees Discuss TI Report on Corruption

Minister of Justice and Law Enforcement Tibor Draskovics addresses press on April 4, 2008. With the Minister to his left are Ambassador Foley, and to his right Noémi Alexa, Executive Director of TI Hungary. (MTI photo by L. Beliczay - full size photo)

Parliament's European Affairs and Budget Committees held a joint session on April 8, 2008 to discuss a Transparency International (TI) report calling for a more determined fight against corruption with financial and political support. The fight against corruption should pay special attention to party and campaign financing and a review of public procurement regulations, said TI.

U.S. Ambassador April H. Foley, speaking on behalf of the countries that represent 85 percent of investments in Hungary (Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States), called for more transparency in the business environment and political support for the work of the anti-corruption committee. "Today, representatives of TI got the opportunity to brief members of the Finance & Budget and the European Affairs Committees on its recommendations, which we fully support. Among them: simplify and better enforce public procurement regulations; strengthen institutions that tackle corruption; and commit to a long-term program to improve transparency", Ambassador Foley said. Making the necessary steps will convey a positive message to investors and the working team is ready to contribute to improving Hungary's competitiveness, she added.

Members of the Ambassadors' Transparency Working Group, a working team for transparency comprising foreign ambassadors in Hungary also attended the meeting.

TI Hungary Executive Director Noémi Alexa said that since the report on corruption came out last December, progress has been made in several areas, including party financing. However, concrete changes have not yet happened and despite good legal regulations against corruption in Hungary, their implementation raises serious concerns, she added.

In TI's report on corruption, Hungary was given 5.2 points in a scale of 0 to 10 last year. Alexa noted that this has been practically unchanged for several years, and that this shows that anti-corruption measures have not been effective enough. Most such measures were made in accord with political interests instead of professional considerations and were ad-hoc, she added.