“Honestly speaking, I do not wish for such a year to happen to us as an institution, because of the simple reason that, under the pressure of the public, the corruption was revealed that had been for years in the Anticorruption committee”, said Rozeta Trajan, General Secretary of the Secretariat of the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption, in a conversation with CIVIL MEDIA, as part of the series “Perspectives 2019”.
Trajan outlined that in 2018 we were faced with the fact that the political elites do not have the will to solve such situations, precisely because of the legal deficiencies, which led the SCPC facing a year in which the members forcibly gave their resignations, while the institution itself remained non-functioning.
“A year which, despite having brought many problems on the surface, also brought new hope and need for bringing a better legal solution and overcoming all the problems that our institution has had throughout the years”, stated Trajan for CIVIL MEDIA, pointing out that an entire year is too much time for bringing new legal solutions and for the election of new members.
Nevertheless, she hopes that the SCPC will finally have members who are independent, professional, experts in the field of fighting corruption.
“If we have in consideration what an international standard is, then we will come to the conclusion that the institutions at the global and regional level are part of prevention and repression…In this fight that is especially difficult and complicated, in addition to the SCPC and investigative bodies such as the MOI, prosecution, courts, the civil society organizations, civil activists, journalists and the public itself are also an important and more than necessary tool and support”, highlighted Trajan, pointing out that a comprehensive approach is needed in which the entire society will be involved.
“By definition, the fight against corruption means, above all, openness, transparency and accountability”, said Trajan.
The expectations for 2019, as Trajan highlighted, are for the new Law on preventing corruption and conflict of interest to finally be adopted, election of new members of the SCPC who will be free of political constraints and who will not be serving the political elites, a secretariat with strengthened authorizations and rights of employees.
Text and editing: Biljana Jordanovska
Camera: Dehran Muratov
Photography: Angela Petrovska
