20/7 Tass 90
MOSCOW, July 20 (Itar-Tass) —— More than 300 corruption cases have been opened in Moscow since the start of the year.
In the first half of 2011, the Investigation Committee’ s division for Moscow opened 310 criminal cases for corruption offences. Nine officials in executive and local bodies, 117 policemen, 10 officials from the service of court bailiffs, six from the tax service, 16 from the healthcare and 10 from the education systems, 13 lawyers and others faced criminal charges.
About 600 corruption cases were opened in 2009, and more than 760 in 2010.
The combined damage from corruption offences in Moscow last year was estimated at almost 1.5 billion roubles.
Russia’s Investigation Committee exposed about 12,000 facts of bribery in the country in 2010, according to the Kremlin’s envoy to the State Duma Garri Minkh.
A total of 1,557 criminal cases involving bribery were sent to courts last year, Minkh said on Wednesday, March 9, at the Duma when discussing the presidential draft law that increases penalties for corruption.
Investigation Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin said the number of corruption offences had increased by 42 percent last year.
“Despite a decrease in the crime rate in general, the [overall] number of corruption offences exposed in 2010 increased by 42 percent to almost 60,000,” he said.
In the Moscow region alone, courts considered 195 criminal cases against 237 officials charged with corruption in 2010.
A total of 376 corruption cases were opened in the Moscow region last year. “Corruption remains one of the threats to society and combating it is a fundamental task of the Investigation Committee,” acting head of the Main Investigation Department of the Investigation Committee for the Moscow region, Andrei Markov, said earlier.
He said the number of corruption cases had increased and exposed 66 other crimes that had not been registered before.
Moscow and the Moscow region are the most corrupt regions in the country, according to a report released by the anti-corruption public organisation “Clean Hands”.
Up to 90 percent of all corruption cases involve public and municipal services.
According to the organisation, the scale of corruption has come close to 50 percent of Russia’s GDP, which is almost identical to the figures published by the World Bank – 48 percent of GDP.
The most corrupt sphere is the provision of public and municipal services, where covert corruption accounts for up to 90 percent of the turnover. For example, entrepreneurs say that they lose about half of their income because of corruption.
In 2005, only 19 percent of businessmen had to give bribes when applying for documents, sociologists say. Another 65-67 percent of those polled, just like five years ago, gave bribes when violating traffic rules and detained by a traffic police inspector.
Some 43-45 percent of Russians said they had given bribes when “going through criminal proceedings in court” (32 percent in 2005) or when “receiving a driver’s license, registering an automobile or undergoing a motor vehicle inspection” (26 percent). And 38.5 percent of Russians gave bribes when “facing criminal charges” (less than 1 percent in 2005).
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the average bribe in Russia has increased by a quarter in 2010 to 30,500 roubles. The office blames the worsening anti-corruption statistics on law enforcement agencies that have loosened vigilance. Russian courts are also too loyal to government officials – the absolute majority of officials sentenced for corruption escape real prison terms.
Presidential chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin admitted earlier that the rate of corruption in Russian society was high but not pandemic.
“The degree of ‘infection’ with this disease is quite high but it’s not pandemic,” Naryshkin said.
The number of exposed corruption offences committed on a large and very large scale increased. In the first ten months of 2010, law enforcement agencies exposed more than 11,000 crimes involving bribery. More than 3,500 people were sentenced. The sum of bribes in these crimes exceeded 500 million roubles. Almost 1,500 crimes involving commercial bribery to an amount of over 150 million roubles were registered and 250 people were sentenced, Naryshkin said.
“Corruption threatens our society as much as terrorism or drug addiction does. Corruption is a considerable obstacle to economic growth and national development, and total neglect of societal interests, especially of vulnerable sections of the population,” he said.
According to the anti-corruption public organisation “Clean Hands”, up to 90 percent of all corruption cases involve public and municipal services, and the scale of corruption has come close to 50 percent of Russia’s GDP, which is almost identical to the figures published by the World Bank – 48 percent of GDP.
The most corrupt sphere is the provision of public and municipal services, where covert corruption accounts for up to 90 percent of the turnover. For example, entrepreneurs say that they lose about half of their income because of corruption.