Kyrgyzstan must reduce corruption, says OECD

Chris Hamblin

16 April 2015

The OECD's latest report says that the country's anti-corruption laws are still largely inconsistent with international standards and law enforcement institutions still lack sufficient co-operation and resources "to fully enforce" anti-corruption laws, although the report neglects to say whether there is any state in the world that is capable of "fully enforcing" such laws, or indeed any other criminal laws. The report calls on Kyrgyzstan to purge its judiciary.

At last, legal reforms are underway and Kyrgyzstan has started to verify and publish asset declarations by public officials. It has also improved the capacity of internal audit in public institutions, launched a public procurement portal and established the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court. To improve things further, the OECD says that Kyrgyzstan should:

"strengthen monitoring of implementation of anti-corruption policy, by further analysing results and impact on the level of corruption";
ensure that its anti-corruption policy is properly co-ordinated, giving 'preventive institutions' sufficient resources, specialised staff and independence;
bring its corruption laws into line with international standards;
improve co-operation between law-enforcement anti-corruption bodies while separating their functions (it does not say from what) and giving them more resources;
reform the civil service;
come out with stronger rules to tackle conflict of interests among public officials and focus on their effective implementation in practice;
keep a closer eye on campaign finance and the funding of political parties;
take steps without delay to ensure the integrity and independence of the judiciary.

The report also says that the government should instil 'ethics' in its officials, although most people might find the concept of an ethical state rather far-fetched.