Corruption is not an unchangeable reality but rather a task at hand, said President of the House of Representatives Annita Demetriou, addressing on Friday an international conference entitled “Combating Corruption, Defending Democracy: The Role of National Parliaments”, hosted in Nicosia with the support of the OSCE PA International Secretariat.
“The fact that no country is immune to corruption is a painful truth, but certainly not an excuse. Corruption is not an unchangeable reality but rather a task at hand. It is precisely this message that we must communicate to our citizens through our debates and exchanges, benefiting from the experience and best practices of one another,” she said.
Demetriou pointed out that efforts must be collective and commensurate to the multifaceted nature and complexity of this phenomenon. As she said, greater inclusiveness, transparency and accountability must be “our primary incentive and our ultimate goal along this difficult path”.
The President of the Parliament recognised Cyprus’ weaknesses or shortfalls regarding corruption, pointing out that “as traumatizing such experiences may be for integral politicians and public confidence, they make us stronger and more determined to find solutions”.
She referred to the Parliament’s actions in the past 18 months towards combating corruption, such as the adoption of a Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament, the approval of legislation on the protection of whistleblowers, legislation on lobbying and the legislation for an Independent Authority against Corruption.
She also referred on a law that regulates lobbying by providing that officials must inform the aforementioned Authority of all meetings they have with persons wishing to be involved in the decision-making process.
“Obviously, we do not expect that with the adoption of this legislation corruption is eradicated once and for all. But we now have better tools to prevent corruption, to find out about it, to bring relevant cases to justice and also to train our administration to recognize them, so that they can be better addressed”, she said.
She furthermore noted, that corruption ranks high among the main concerns of citizens, particularly youth, leading to their disillusionment, disaffection and abstention from political activity and public life.
“As Parliamentarians, we have the imperative duty to gain back our credibility and reliability in the eyes of our citizens. As legislators and guarantors of their rights and interests we must ensure effective oversight to strengthen democratic institutions and to promote good governance, transparency and accountability”, she added.
Demetriou also said that corruption can have devastating effects on societies and social cohesion, as it distorts markets and competition, corrodes the rule of law, undermines government legitimacy, breeds cynicism among citizens and nourishes populism. Corruption, she added, can have a geopolitical impact, when used as a tool by foreign powers to buy influence and to advance their foreign policy agendas.
Source: Cyprus News Agency