Corruption is all over government

[NewsWhore]

The director of the Governmental Corruption Prevention Office Octavio Lister said last week that corruption in government continues to be "very high and visible". Commenting on the statement, Presidential pre-candidate and former senator for Santo Domingo, Jose Tomas Perez called on the government apply the Freedom of Information Act (Ley de Libre Acceso a la Informacion Publica), calling it the most effective instrument available for combating corruption in government. "The greatest incentive for corruption is the lack of transparency in government operations, which happens when a government officer handles multi-million budgets without having to be accountable to the public and the press," said Perez, as reported in Listin Diario. Perez said that the government should apply the freedom of information act in full. "Corruption is one of the fundamental axis that limit a society's development. Historically billions that should have gone to public services, medical care and to resolve the country's basic problems, go instead to the hands of a few government officers and politicians with their front men. That is a national disgrace that is going to require lots of political will and concerted efforts of the best men and women of this society to combat it in the future," he said.
Regarding the comments of Lister, both Jose Joaquin Bido Medina, who heads the Commission for Ethics and Combating Corruption and Cesar Pina Toribio, Presidential legal advisor, refused to comment.
Spokesman for the opposition PRD deputies in Congress, Cristian Paredes said that Lister should resign his post. He said that so far nobody in the present government has been jailed for corruption. He said that all the present authorities do is talk, as reported in Listin.

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