Government: Three GRECO recommendations implemented within a year

In a press release Friday, the Government announced it has fully implemented three recommendations issued by the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) over the last year.

The announcement was issued in response to the latest report by the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body, which was released Thursday.

The GRECO report found that Macedonia made no substantial progress in implementing recommendations on preventing corruption among MPs, judges, and prosecutors.

Calling the country’s performance at this stage ‘clearly disappointing,’ the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption group urged the authorities to take more determined and focused action in respect of a number of recommendations issued four-and-a-half years ago.

“We are fully committed to their implementation,” the Government wrote, “proof of which are the three recommendations we have implemented over a single year, compared to the actions of the previous government, which is the root cause of the corruption situation and which over four years (2013-2016) implemented only three at the level of all national institutions.”

“The situation we inherited in 2016,” the release continues, “reflected exactly the GRECO report, which then said that only 3 of the 19 recommendations had been implemented satisfactorily at the time. Of the remaining recommendations, 10 had been partially implemented, and 6 had not been implemented.”

In comparison, the latest GRECO report on the compliance of the Republic of Macedonia, Fourth Round, adopted at GRECO’s 80th Plenary Meeting in Strasbourg, 18-22 June 2018), states that 6 of the 19 recommendations have been implemented satisfactorily. Of the remaining recommendations, 8 have been partially implemented, and 5 have not been implemented.

The Government explains that it has developed an Action Plan to implement the GRECO recommendations that remain, pointing out that of the remaining 13, only 2 pertain to the Ministry of Justice.

Some of the remaining recommendations will be implemented by the adoption of the new Law on Corruption Prevention, which is being drafted. The Ministry of Justice should have the full text by the end of August, the release said.

Another recommendation will be implemented by the new Law on Public Prosecution, which will be finished by December 2018.

The remaining recommendations are within the domain of Parliament and independent bodies against corruption.

“The return of the rule of law and the impartial fight against crime and corruption is this Government’s imperative,” the release adds.