NCJ Number
184670
Date Published
2000
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This chapter reviews corruption in Croatia.
Abstract
According to data of Transparency International, Croatia ranks among the 25 countries with the highest level of corruption in the world. Reports in Croatian newspapers suggest that the country is almost at the top of the list. Despite all the published evidence of corruption, almost all the participants still hold high positions in the state hierarchy. There have been some legislative attempts to fight the problem: the Penal Code, the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering, the Law on Rights and Obligations of State Officials to cite a few. Croatia ratified the Criminal Law Convention and is preparing to ratify the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. However, the institutions responsible for implementing these laws and conventions are ineffective. The discrepancy between the volume of publicly available information about corruption and the lack of effective countermeasures by responsible institutions suggests that top-level political authorities are at the root of the corruption. Those authorities' strong influence on legislative, executive and judicial institutions is an obstacle to the institutions' autonomy and produces a condition of legal insecurity.