Anti-corruption program starts

  • 2013-10-03
  • From wire reports

TALLINN - The Estonian government approved on Oct. 3 the anti-corruption strategy for 2013-2020, the aim of which is to increase the awareness of people of corruption, the transparency of decisions and activities in the public sector and promote and develop the quality of investigating corruption crimes, reports Postimees Online.

The main principle of the new strategy is to increase transparency. “This means that, for example, information about the financial transactions of local municipalities and of the state becomes more easily accessible for citizens. State institutions will start compiling risk evaluations on the basis of the new strategy that find out the spots prone to corruption,” said Justice Ministry analysis service head Mari-Liis Soot, who headed compiling the strategy. The aim is that every state institution works on becoming cleaner. With state procurement, more documents will be made public and an aim has been set to have 100 percent paper-free processing, she added.

Soot said that the corruption risk in local municipalities will be under close observation. “Implementing the strategy has to guarantee transparency of public means used by local municipalities, so that it would be clear and understandable for people in what their money is used for,” said Soot. Thorough reports to the government on fulfilling the strategy will be submitted in 2017 and 2021.