National Anti-corruption Programme launched

The Government Office has created a national anti-corruption programme for Slovakia with the aim of identifying and evaluating the risks of corruption and to take measurable action, the TASR press agency reports. It comes as a response to an evaluation report published last week by the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), the Council of Europe's anti-corruption monitoring body. The report "urges Slovakia to strengthen the effectiveness of its legal framework and policies to prevent corruption amongst people with top executive functions such as ministers and other senior government officials and the police force". GRECO also warned about the need for increased transparency in contacts between the top state institutions and lobbyists. The Government Office wants to reinforce corruption prevention by introducing a reform of gift registrations and raise the level of protection of employees who report corruption.