The program, approved on Jan. 17, provides for measures to limit political and administrative corruption. It puts forward regulations concerning the investigation of violations of the law by corruption, together with an attempt to boost public awareness of corruption.
In order to combat political corruption, the program proposes to prohibit individuals from financially supporting political parties. This is currently the major source of funding for parties during election campaigns.
The corruption-busting program also suggests mandatory checks into the work of officials appointed by the Parliament, prime minister or president, deputy ministers, mayors and their deputies, and the heads of state and municipal enterprises.
In the area of administrative corruption prevention, the program proposes to simplify the procedure of issuing various permits and licenses, as well as customs procedures, and create a system for protecting those who inform about incidents of corruption at work.
In extraordinary cases the program provides for radical measures to, for instance, reorganize public administration institutions or dismiss employees in cases of entrenched and widespread hierarchical corruption.
According to the program, educational programs should be implemented to help involve society and the media in the never-ending battle against corruption.
According to data from the Interior Ministry, 1,530 individual incidents of civil service corruption were registered in Lithuania in the period 1995 to 2001, 388 of which were cases of bribery.
Data from the non-governmental organization Transparency International has it that Lithuania rose from 50th position in its corruption perception index in 1999 to 38th in 2001.
According to 1999 World Bank data, Lithuania ranked in the same group with the Czech Republic, Russia and Slovakia according to the level of administrative corruption.
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