Pellegrini: Government Ready to Continue Fight Against Corruption

Pellegrini: Government Ready to Continue Fight Against Corruption

Bratislava, December 9 (TASR) – The Government is prepared to continue its active fight against corruption, Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) claimed in response to a joint statement by Canadian, Dutch, British and US embassies marking the International Anti-Corruption Day on Sunday.

“As the statement says, a number of important anti-corruption measures were espoused by Slovakia in the recent period, which gradually boost the public support for state administration and judiciary,” said Pellegrini. He noted that the statement evaluates positively the police investigations into several serious crimes, including the significant progress achieved in the case of double murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova. Pellegrini added that the Government welcome the offers of co-operation in this field extended by other countries.

The embassies of Canada, the United Kingdom, Netherlands and United States welcome recent guilty verdicts issued in corruption cases involving senior public servants as well as the progress in several others. They voiced hope that all cases will be resolved promptly and relevant state bodies manage to identify those controlling or benefiting from corruption.

The embassies praised proposed measures designed to increase the protection of whistleblowers and the effort to task an individual institution with carrying out such protection. Public opinion polls indicate, however, that Slovaks still place extremely low trust in state institutions. This is the reason in the eyes of embassy representatives why some potential whistleblowers choose not to report corruption, as they lack confidence in relevant state bodies being willing and capable of protecting them from backlash.