Corruption remains high

Corruption has increased in Kyrgyzstan, a World Bank official says. A recent World Bank report has found that the frequency of bribes and how often firms saw corruption as a problem for business had increased between 2002 and 2005. James Anderson, co-author of the report and a senior economist in the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia section, said some aspects of Kyrgyzstan's regulatory environment continued to be stifling. Complex and non-transparent rules gave public officials scope to abuse their positions, he said. In 2005 Kyrgyzstan, together with the eastern European country of Albania, continued to have the worst corruption indicators of the 32 countries surveyed. About one half of Kyrgyz firms said that bribery was common and the report found that there had been no prosecutions under the country's anti-corruption law. It said that anti-corruption strategies mainly consisted of proposals to change the legal framework. There had been relatively little attention paid to implementation and upgrading of managerial skills. “It all comes down to implementation. The biggest difference between the countries that made real progress and those that have not is that the former group have ensured that the reforms put down on paper are implemented,” Anderson said. “In the Kyrgyz Republic, much of the emphasis has been on passing legislation, but unless those reforms are thoroughly implemented they are not going to show results," he said. Kyrgyzstan scored 2.3 out of 10 on Transparency International (TI)’s 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index, with 10 indicating a country is highly clean and 0 highly corrupted. TI ranked the nation 130th out of 158 countries surveyed. The World Bank report released on Wednesday examined corruption involving businesses and the government between 2002 and 2005. It drew on the Business for Reconstruction Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey, a joint initiative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank. The survey included 26 former socialist countries, Turkey and five western European countries for comparison. More than 20,000 firms were interviewed over three rounds. Kyrgyzstan had a revolution and change of government at the time of the survey, with corruption being one of the underlying factors leading to the change, according to the report. However, Anderson said he did not think the unrest affected the survey results to a great degree. The next survey would examine the new government’s ability and willingness to deal with corruption. “There are no quick and easy solutions. Perhaps the most important thing is for the government itself to show respect for legal norms and provide leadership to the public administration in the implementation of reforms which will be essential for the development of the Kyrgyz Republic,” Anderson said. AJ/GS/DS