Welcome Remarks of UNDP Kyrgyzstan's RR at Technical Workshop Devoted to International Anticorruption Day

December 9, 2019

Louise Chamberlain - UNDP Kyrgyzstran's Resident Representative

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning and on behalf of the United Nations in Kyrgyzstan let me warmly welcome you to this technical workshop “Towards Corruption Prevention Strategies – Devoted to International Anticorruption Day”.

This event, which is jointly organized by UNDP, UNODC and Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic, aims at identifying progress and bottlenecks in the fight against corruption in Kyrgyzstan.

The United Nations has a longstanding and productive relationship with the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic and in particular with the Law and Order, Crime Prevention and Combatting Corruption Committee, and I would like to thank Ms Nikitenko, for the invitation to co-host today’s session and share knowledge to inform national anti-corruption efforts.

Today we mark a global International Anti-Corruption Day, which is a good occasion for all of us to pause and reflect on the fight against corruption in Kyrgyzstan. Corruption erodes the very essence of democratic values. It is devastatingly negative for economic growth, contributes to the entrenchment of poverty, and will make it difficult for the Kyrgyz Republic to achieve Substantial Development Goals by 2030.

We know now that every year, around US$2.6 trillion is lost to corruption globally. This is 5 per cent of the global GDP and 10 times more than the official development assistance worldwide. Businesses and individuals pay more than US$1 trillion in bribes every year. In our region - Europe and Central Asia, 1 in 3 citizens believe that corruption is the single biggest problem facing their country.

Kyrgyzstan has taken initial steps in the fight against corruption by ratifying the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in 2005 as well as the OECD’s Istanbul Anti-Corruption-Action Plan and its monitoring process. Kyrgyzstan is the only country in the Central Asia region which is a part of Open Government Partnership and has developed a national action plan 2018-2022, prioritizing strengthening of public integrity measures, public procurement, access to information and judicial and legislative openness.

Recently the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic adopted a series of legal instruments which contribute to address corruption, such as the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure code, the Code of Offences, the Code of Violations and other important pieces of legislation to strengthen the quality of justice dispensation, judicial independence, due process and the rule of law.

However, despite progress made on the legal framework, the country is still lacking a comprehensive national framework and action plan to prevent and fight corruption. Although likely reaching substantial amounts, there is no official estimate of how much money is lost every year due to corruption, although it has severe negative impact on economic growth of the country.  

The OECD’s Fourth Round of Monitoring of Kyrgyzstan suggested that

·        the quality of the measures and indicators for assessing the national and departmental anti-corruption plans and their effectiveness need to be improved; and

·        and should be aimed at changing the level of corruption in the real life of citizens, and strengthen engagement with the general public; in particular, the Government should encourage a more active and open participation of the civil society in combatting corruption.

The United Nations helps countries advance their fight against corruption as a key development agenda. Most recently the #NextGenAntiCorruption initiative has been launched, aiming at using innovation and technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Machine Learning and Blockchain as well as other methods to further advance anti-corruption efforts and facilitate the knowledge-sharing process. These initiatives range from designing anti-corruption legislation and policies, improving public service delivery, to addressing rules on conflicts of interest and assets and interest disclosure, whistle-blower protection, independence of judiciary, public procurement, business integrity, recovery and management of corruption proceeds.

The Kyrgyzstan, our focus has been on supporting national institutions to enhance transparency and integrity of electoral processes; promote e-government service delivery; support a more accessible, transparent and accountable Parliament; promote judicial and legal reform and e-fiscalization and ensure legal harmonization of domestic legislation with international instruments. Many of these areas lay important foundations for addressing corruption, but they are not sufficient in themselves.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are here today because Kyrgyzstan is bleeding from the corrupt practices that are ailing the country, and because it remains critical to develop a remedy for the country’s survival. My colleagues from the UN team and other speakers will share perspectives on the nature of the problem and a few examples and good practices from the region, also. We hope to stimulate a lively discussion and support for national comprehensive action.

Let me conclude by reasserting that the United Nations is committed to working with the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, the civil society and other Development Partners to provide assistance in making real and accelerated progress on national efforts on anti-corruption.

I wish you a very successful workshop today. Thank you.