Corruption in society is like a tax that is paid twice, and low-level corruption costs both the state and its citizens, the head of the French Anti-Corruption Agency, Charles Duchaine, said on Tuesday."There are some countries where there is, in a way, a tradition of paying for things that are accessible for free, where there are intermediaries who ask for money to get a permit and who, when you draw the line, are surrounded by people who are indebted to them. This does not exist in France, but it could happen tomorrow and I believe that we need to think that such behaviours have no cultural basis. If it is cultural, we should change the culture. There are countries where you are told that this happens because the officials are not paid well enough. I do not say it is false, it might be. But there are also countries where officials are well paid and still have this kind of corruption. Let's change the mentalities (...) and in order to do that let's explain to the people how much this costs them. Because it costs them a lot. It may seem unimportant, but it is a lot," the French official told a news conference.Duchaine underscored the need to prevent corruption and to focus on education."I think at this level we have to rely a lot on prevention, because there is no repression against small corruption. It will never be a priority, so we have to rely on prevention and education. If you want, corruption is a tax you pay twice," he explained.He also spoke about the importance of political will in the fight against corruption."Corruption is the crime of power, the crime of political power, the crime of economic power, it is the crime of the strong, and the fight against corruption must come from a very strong political will," the official said.According to the head of the French Anti-Corruption Agency, a joint effort is needed in this area. Corruption, like pollution, is not a problem that everyone solves in their own corner," Duchaine said.The director of the French Anti-Corruption Agency, Charles Duchaine, is paying a visit to Romania between September 27 and 29. (Photo:https://www.facebook.com/France.Romania/)
Update: Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan won the Romanian presidential election on May 18, according to the official vote count. With 98.5% of the ballots counted, Nicusor Dan had 54.17% of the votes, 900,000 more than his opponent, nationalist George Simion. A record turnout both in the country and abroad helped Dan come back from 1.88 million […]
Romanians showed up in record numbers to vote in the second round of the presidential elections, both in the country and abroad. The exit poll results presented on Sunday evening pointed to a strong lead for Bucharest’s pro-EU mayor Nicusor Dan (54%-46%), but are only relevant for the domestic vote. Both candidates claimed victory in […]
Romanians showed up in large numbers to vote in the second round of the country’s presidential elections, one of the most important democratic tests Romania has seen in the last three decades. At 14:00, exactly halfway through the voting process in the country, over 5.63 million Romanians have cast their votes, compared with 4.52 million […]
Romanians abroad have mobilized massively to vote in the second round of the country’s presidential elections. Update: By Sunday afternoon (15:00 Bucharest time), over 1.2 million Romanians have voted abroad for the country's next president. That's some 220,000 more votes than the overall total in the first round. The countries with the largest turnout are […]
Romanians abroad have mobilized massively to vote in the second round of the country’s presidential elections. The vote in Diaspora started on Friday morning, and by Saturday evening (at 19:00), over 609,000 Romanians had already cast their votes. The turnout is almost 90% higher than the one recorded at the same time in the first […]
It's almost impossible to think about anything not related to elections this weekend but if you should need some distraction, there are options. Happening now is the European Film Festival, screening recent productions from the continent, very varied in theme, tone, and genre. The fest is playing Bucharest, Sfântu Gheorghe and Timișoara until Sunday and […]
