AKEL on International Anti-Corruption Day
Unprecedented increase in corruption since Anastasiades-DISY were elected
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 9th December 2019, Nicosia
This year’s International Anti-Corruption Day finds Cyprus at the top of a shameful table. A recent report released by the World Bank points out that since 2013, Cyprus has registered the biggest increase in corruption across the entire EU. This is the latest in a series of reports released by international organizations, European institutions, non-governmental organizations and foreign agencies on the unprecedented increase of corruption in Cyprus since the day Nikos Anastasiades and DISY assumed the administration of the country.
This is no accident. The relentless waves of scandals with the government’s “citizenship by investment scheme”, which is discrediting Cyprus all over the world, bears the mark of the Anastasiades government. The Troika Laundromat scandal involves the law firm of Nikos Anastasiades in dirty money laundering cases. Nikos Anastasiades was a witness for the defense of the former Assistant Attorney General who was sentenced for corruption. So when the government plays a leading role in them, how can one expect accountability, transparency and good administration to be applied in the state, the government, the state mechanism and in institutions?
Corruption is one of the biggest scourges facing modern Cypriot society because it poisons everything. It undermines the principle of equality for all citizens before the law, democracy and social justice. It deeply distorts the functioning of the economy to the benefit of powerful interests and cronies. It burdens the people and the state with millions of Euros that should otherwise be channeled to meet society’s needs. It keeps society and citizens stagnant as honesty, work and creativity aren’t rewarded, but instead wheeling and dealing and interwoven interests. It provokes depreciation and erodes political life. It generates rage and frustration among our country’s youth.
The government however neither wants, nor can it recognize and combat corruption and interwoven interests. AKEL will continue, both inside and outside Parliament, the fight against corruption, a universal demand of society.
