News

06. 15. 2001.

Second Global Forum on Fighting Corruption. An international conference entitled Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity was held in the Hague between the 28th and the 31st of May. Discussions involving respective departments of governments present at the conference were accompanied by scientific programs. As part of the workshop focusing on Integrity and Governance Róbert Manchin director of the Gallup Organization's Central and Eastern European Regional Headquarters delivered a lecture entitled Democracy - Corruption. Is there a Link? an outline of which is available from the Gallup Monitor's website.

05. 07. 2001.

Honesty Trust and Corruption: a Research Program at Collegium Budapest. Collegium Budapest is launching a two year research program lead by János Kornai a member of The Hungarian Academy of Sciences to study problems encountered by countries in a transition from socialism. The aim of the workshop taking place between the 24th and 26th of May is to discuss preliminary studies findings and observations with special attention being paid to the ways in which the lack of honesty and trust can undermine attempts to create a modern state.

04. 19. 2001.

Two amendments are being drafted to the law on public procurement. Interdepartmental discussion of the government's proposal lead by the Ministry of Justice is scheduled to come to a close before the end of April just as the amendment prepared by the Public Procurement Committee of Parliament having been streamlined by experts is being finalized. As a result two proposals will have been brought in by the end of May. In order for the finalized amendment to really have the desired effect that is to reduce the chances of corruption and increase the effectiveness of public procurement it is essential that these two proposals conceived along different lines be integrated into a unified framework.

03. 19. 2001.

The decree of the government on the governmental strategy against corruption comprises 27 clauses elaborating on the measures the government wishes to take to defend the economy and social life against corruption and effectively suppress corruption related phenomena by means of criminal law. Besides modifying the general legal context and coercive regulations the government also wishes to foster trustworthy ethical and responsible communications and calls for the creation of educational programs within the domain of state supervised education. The governmental decree besides making ministries and government agencies accountable by defining their responsibilities and setting deadlines also invites the State Audit Office the Hungarian Chamber of Audits the National Iudical Council the Attorney General and other professional organizations involved to cooperate. The government finds that enhancing the effectiveness of its counter corruption strategy monitoring and analyzing the results of opinion polls and other types of research and proposing governmental decisions based on these findings all justify the creation of a governmental counter corruption body. The complete text of the government's decree is also available from Gallup Monitor's website.


The GRECO is scheduled to evaluate the state of corruption in Hungary and the measures taken to counter corruption between the 29th of May and the 1st of June. The GRECO (Group of States against Corruption) which Hungary is also a member of has made provisions in its Statute for regular evaluation of member countries. In the year 2000 ten countries (Belgium Cyprus Finland France Georgia Luxemburg Spain Sweden Slovakia and Slovenia) were evaluated based on replies given to questionnaires and the experiences of evaluation teams visiting the respective countries. The questionnaire contains a total of 63 questions centered around a number of topics. Members of the evaluation team are picked from a list containing over a hundred experts - policemen members of law enforcement agencies judges state attorneys staffers form the ministries of the interior and justice- delegated by the member countries. Some of the reports already completed (those on Belgium Slovakia and Slovenia) are also available from the World Wide Web. The GRECO is evaluating 12 countries (Bosnia Herzegovina Greece Ireland Poland Lithuania Hungary Germany and Romania) this year. The situation in Hungary is to be evaluated at the same time as that in Poland. There is further information to be found on all the above issues in the "Reports" section at the website maintained by the GRECO.

03. 07. 2001.

Parliament has modified the regulations pertaining to representatives' mandatory disclosure of their property status. The modification of the law on the legal status of representatives facilitated by a compromise reached by the governing party and the largest opposition party provides for increased transparency of the origins of representatives' enrichment. Representatives are to disclose their property status to the public and have to identify their sources of income. Though relatives of representatives are also compelled by this law to disclose their property status nothing of what they have disclosed will be made public.

02. 16. 2001.

Hungarian pages at the UN's counter corruption website. Documents pertaining to the counter corruption project jointly administered by Hungary and the UN have been made available to the public. Of the more than one hundred pages worth of documents available from the counter corruption site of ODCCP's Center for International Crime Prevention (CICP) the documents containing the two agreements signed by the proper branches of the UN and Hungary are by far the most important. The Ministry of Justice incorporated the results of research projects conducted in accordance with these agreements into its proposal on national counter corruption strategy the first draft of which was discussed by the government at its meeting on the 6th of February 2001 with the debate over the 2nd draft being scheduled for the meeting on the 20th of February.

01. 08. 2001.

The State Audit Office is calling for a law guaranteeing the transparency of the financing of election campaigns. According to the suggestion made by the State Audit Office the government should propose an amendment to the number C. law of 1999 on Election Procedures also referring to the financing of election campaigns. In its report on the use by nominating organizations and independent candidates of campaign funds during the by elections in October 1999 and April 2000 the State Audit Office stated that: "The laws pertaining to campaign procedures the operation and accountancy of political parties do not rule out the employment of techniques enabling nominating organizations to only account for a certain proportion of their campaign expenditures in their registers. Currently no total transparency of the use and origin of campaign funds can be guaranteed due to inadequate legal regulations.