FOR YEARS now, deputies and their respective parties have been paying lip service to the need for anti-corruption legislation that would force every politician and high state official to submit a declaration of assets and interests on assuming office. All the parties and politicians were supposedly in favour of such legislation, but in spite of the unanimous support no anti-graft law was ever passed.
There was one half-baked half-hearted attempt to do so a few years ago, but it did not result in the passing of legislation. After years of prevarication, a bill was eventually prepared but it featured so many legal loopholes (which was strange, considering that more than half of the members of the House are lawyers) that the president sent it back to the legislature on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. No other attempt has been made since, but deputies remain fully committed to eradicating corruption, at least theoretically.
A few weeks after his election last February, President Tassos Papadopoulos set a good example by releasing his personal capital statement and getting all members of his cabinet to do the same. These statements were printed in the press, the government showing that when the will exists there is a way, thus making a mockery of the legalistic excuses cited by the political parties. There was no law forcing the president to take such a step, but he did so anyway.
The political parties, on the other hand, continued with the charade that they were committed to the fight against graft and corruption. But the lies and vacuous rhetoric are drawing to a close now, because Cyprus is under European Union pressure to pass anti-graft legislation. Back in 2001, the government ratified the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, which aims at the co-ordinated criminalisation of corrupt practices, including bribery of officials, parliamentarians, civil servants and judges, as well as trading in influence.
Cyprus is obliged to brief the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), of which it is a member, in Strasbourg next week about the status of the anti-graft bills. GRECO suggested that a system should be established for the declaration of assets and interests of high-ranking state officials including deputies, ministers, the president and the attorney-general. No bill has yet been passed, with the political parties happy to delay things as much as possible, despite pressure from the state’s legal services. There is no way that the bills will be passed on time as AKEL has requested an additional 15 days to study the matter further.
Fortunately, the political parties will be unable to keep postponing the passing of the bills indefinitely, because it is no longer up to them. They are now answerable to a higher authority, which is the only reason that the passing of the anti-corruption bills is inevitable. Whether the new legislation will be enforced is another matter. But at least there is a glimmer of hope as GRECO will be monitoring the situation.
