by Mr. Roderick Moore, Charge
d'Affairs, US Embassy
I applaud this conference's focus on corruption in
the security forces. There is no more perfidious form of corruption
than among officials in whom, by the very nature of their jobs, the
public must vest the greatest trust. These are the people who
patrol our streets, keep our families safe, protect our borders,
raise our revenues, guard our secrets, and defend our
countries.
This problem is not unique to Bulgaria, or even this
region. However, because I live and work in this country, my
comments and observations will be largely focused on the issued
faced by Bulgaria.
I would commend the Bulgarian government for its
initiative efforts to tackle corruption, which Prime Minister
emphasized again just two days ago is a high priority for Bulgaria.
Indeed, the participation of GOB officials in this conference is a
positive signal of the seriousness with which the Government takes
this issue.
Moreover, over the past months, organizations such
as CSD, the Marshall Center and others have done a tremendous job
of raisin public awareness on corruption. As with alcoholism or
other illnesses, acknowledging the disease is an important step
toward the cure.
However, for new democracies undergoing complex
societal transitions, merely acknowledging the existence of
corruption is insufficient in and of itself. The judiciaries of
these countries must protect their adolescent democracies by taking
forceful step to identify, prosecute, convict, and imprison
corruption officials - greedy and dishonest people whose actions
corrode public confidence in your key institutions,. Unless
checked, continued rampant corruption will jeopardize democratic
reforms and undermine social stability in this region.
In Bulgaria, it is our view that the judiciary to
date has not seriously attacked corruption in its public
institutions, including the security services. In my eighteen
months in Bulgaria, I am not aware of a single, prominent
corruption case that has ended in a prison term for a Bulgarian
government employed - a highly surprising fact, given the public's
belief in widespread corruption Bulgarian Customs service, police
and many ministries. This high level for "white collar" crime is
highly damaging to your economy, your democratic system, and to
your international reputation.
No country, including my own, has a perfect - or
even adequate - record in this area. The very fact that dozes of
American films depicting crooked policemen, bribe-taking
politicians, or errant spies have appeared in recent years reflects
weaknesses in our own society and institutions. Moreover, there is
a growing body of evidence that the growth of the narcotics trade,
which entails transfers of enormous amounts of money and the
temptations that go with it, has led to increased malfeasance among
government officials in all the countries touched by this
scourge.
That said, in my country, our society does not
tolerate public corruption - particularly in the security services
and among politicians - and our judicial system punishes it
severely when it is uncovered. Punishing corruption is, after all,
one of the strongest deterrents to corruption. By its very essence,
the rule of law demands that a society be able to punish those who
transgress its law.
Let me cite a few statistics. During the 1990's ,
13, 069 public officials in the U.S. were indicted for corruption
on federal charges, and 11, 527 were convicted (about half of them
federal officials) - that's an 88,2% rate of conviction. And this
figure only includes individuals prosecuted for federal crimes; it
does not include the many prosecutions carried out by state or
local courts throughout the fifty United States or the many
thousands of administrative penalties meted our be government
agencies against their employees.
I firmly believe that this measure of commitment by
our government and judiciary to public integrity has greatly
strengthened our own democracy. One important indicator is the
degree of public confidence in governmental institutes. According
to several recent polls , public confidence in local police forces
in the U.S., for example, ranged between 80-97%. In Bulgarian, by
contrast, several studies indicated much lower levels -
approximately 30% of public confidence in the police. Indeed,
according to one survey, 54% of Bulgarians believed that most
police are corrupt, and 77% believed that most Customs agents were
on the take.
Prosecution and imprisonment of corruption officials
is, and should be, the last resort, of course. And while respect
for the rule of law - and fear of the consequences if you break the
law - are perhaps some of the strongest deterrents, our experience
demonstrates there are other measures that can be taken to limit or
prevent corruption in the security services. These measures, some
of which are already employed in Bulgaria, include pre- and
post-employment background checks; developing codes of ethics and
establishing offices to enforce them; creating powerful and
intrusive offices of internal affairs or inspectorates general;
strengthening parliamentary oversight of security agencies;
conducting regular inspections of government agencies; holding
supervisors accountable for poor oversight or management;
establishing public hotlines for the reporting of waste, fraud, or
mismanagement; or even using special prosecutors to avoid conflicts
of interest. I am certain that this conference will review these
and other preventive measures.
There has been much talk in Bulgaria about judicial
reform as a necessary step towards curbing corruption. While
reforms that will strengthen your institutions' ability to root out
corruption may indeed be desirable (and we are ready to support
such reforms), they will take time. In the meantime, calls for
reform should not be an excuse for inaction of procrastination.
There is no legal reason why the country's existing laws and
judicial system cannot be employed more effectively to sanction
dishonest, law-breaking officials in the police, customs, military,
or other government bodies.
The U.S. spends millions of dollars per year in
Bulgaria to assist in the fight against corruption - working for
example with CSD, your Customs Service, the National Audit Office,
and the anti-corruption task force.
We want to continue to work with you in the battle
against corruption and fraud in your institutions. This is not mere
altruism, it is in our interest as well to support Bulgaria's
democratic institutions. A Bulgaria with strong institutions is
more stable and prosperous Bulgaria and a more attractive place for
Americans to invest and do business - a major goal of the U.S. in
this region.
But all the ink and money the U.S., EU, or other
donors can expend on combating corruption and serious crime in
Bulgaria will amount to little without courage and cooperation in
the part of honest Bulgarian leaders, judges, prosecutors and
security officials. Moreover, I would stress that police and other
security officials are themselves the best guarantors of the
integrity of their colleagues, as they have the greatest interest
in protecting the honor of their professions.
In the end, the manner in which Bulgaria
addressed the issue of corruption over the next several months will
be an important yardstick for the international community as it
weighs Bulgaria's candidacy for membershi0 in NATO and other
Euroatlantic institutions.
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