Political corruption

BELGRADE - The Anti-Corruption Agency and the Tax Administration of the Serbian Ministry of Finance inked an agreement on Thursday on business-technical cooperation which will facilitate and accelerate the exchange of data and activities in the domain of prevention of corruption and money laundering.

BELGRADE - The regional conference on prevention of corruption on border crossings opened in Belgrade on Thursday.

The conference is hosted by the U.S. Embassy and it gathers representatives of the police, Prosecutor's Offices and customs services of Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Romania.

BELGRADE - Leader of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) Aleksandar Vucic has said that the fight against corruption and crime is, in fact, a fight for recovery of the Serbian economy.

“The fight against corruption appears to be weak and the number of convictions remains low,” the Kosovar Institute for Policy, Research and Development (KIPRED) said in a new report.

Kosovo’s parliament adopted a new anti-corruption strategy and action plan for 2013-17 in February, but it has been criticised by Brussels, which is also demanding action to tackle graft.

A bill aimed at cracking down harder on corruption, particularly in the public sector, foresees prison terms of more than five years and fines of up to 150,000 euros for offenders while offering protection to whistleblowers, Kathimerini understands.

Politicians in Bosnia have been trying to stir up bad memories of the 1990s conflict in a bid to undermine and discredit the nationwide protests against economic hardship and corruption.

Greece has made some headway in tackling rampant graft at home but urgently needs to crack down on bribes paid to foreign public officials aimed at winning contracts overseas, the OECD said in a report on Friday.