Speaking at the two-day event, which was organised by Transparency International (TI) Croatia, Finnish Ambassador to Croatia Ilpo Manninen, whose country actively supports the anti-corruption fight in the region, said that corruption was one of the main obstacles to global economic development and that it caused losses amounting to billions of dollars.
Corruption is most frequently linked with developing countries, although it is present in highly developed countries as well. Croatia does not implement anti-corruption programmes and lacks the political will to fight corruption, Manninen said, stressing that this issue was very important for Croatia's integration with the European Union.
Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights president Zarko Puhovski said that the door to the fight against corruption in Croatia had only been slightly opened. Corruption, which can be material and non-material, is characterised by lack of transparency or access to information, he said.
A member of the TI Croatia steering board, Josip Kregar, warned that the state administration was closed to citizens, who he said were entitled to information except in case of a military or state secret.
Assistant European Integration Minister Tamara Obradovic said that the ministry had just issued a document with information on staff authorised to deal with certain issues in order to increase information availability.
A state secretary at the Central Office for State Administration, Antun Palaric, said that the Office had issued a catalogue with information and names of relevant persons and answered almost all inquiries. Significant progress has been made and control has been increased of bodies of state administration which might withhold information, he said.
A member of the parliamentary committee on computerisation, information and media, Antun Kapraljevic, spoke about the chronology of the unsuccessful work of the commission on conflict of interest which he had headed. He said that efforts to collect information had met with resistance, including disregard of deadlines and requests for exemption.
The chairman of the Slovene Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, Drago Kos, spoke about the fight against corruption in his country.