TS: Party Control – Main Generator of Corruption

Nemanja Nenadic (Beta/Milan Obradovic)

Transparency Serbia Program Director Nemanja Nenadic said on Sept. 9 that one of the reasons for corruption is the high dependency of the economy and citizens on the public sector, while its main generator is party control, which spreads over the entire public sector. 

He added that the expansion of private businesses also greatly depends on political support. 

“The main generator of corruption is party control over the public sector, which goes far beyond the level of decisions made in the parliament or by the government. In a good portion of the public sector key decisions are made by the easily replaceable acting managers, who owe their positions to politically powerful officials, instead of being accountable to the citizens,” Nenadic said in an interview for the Independence Trade Union’s website.

He pointed out that a large portion of the private sector also depends on powerful politicians and that as opposed to some other countries where political officials are frequently the puppets of the powerful businesspeople, the expansion of businesses in Serbia depends to a great extent on political support.

Nenadic also said that corruption can be neither diminished nor suppressed as long as the level of the rule of law is low, the laws are violated openly, the prosecutors are not investigating corrupt behavior and support to independent control bodies is not increased.