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GRECO: Turkey’s compliance with recommendations to fight corruption is globally unsatisfactory

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The Council of Europe’s anti-corruption group, the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), on Monday published an interim compliance report on Turkey in which it said the country has failed to comply with any of the nine recommendations covering “transparency of political funding” adopted in March 2010.

The report examines the compliance of Turkey with 17 recommendations adopted in March 2010, which cover “incrimination” and “transparency of political funding.”

Since the adoption of these recommendations, GRECO has several times examined the evolution with regard to their implementation, and, also taking into account information provided by the Turkish authorities, published several reports on its findings.

These reports categorized as “implemented satisfactorily” six out of eight recommendations on “incrimination,” the other two remaining “partly implemented.” With regard to “transparency of party funding,” GRECO concluded that none of the nine recommendations has been satisfactorily implemented.

The conclusion in this latest interim report is that Turkey has not made any new tangible progress in the implementation of the recommendations. While underlining that it is not indifferent to the difficult times that Turkey is going through as Turkey underwent a failed coup attempt on July 15 and that it appreciates its renewed commitment to implementing these recommendations, GRECO stressed that it is clearly disappointing that the level of compliance at this stage remains “globally unsatisfactory.”

The Turkish authorities are once again urged by GRECO to enhance their efforts to carry out the reforms initiated, paying particular attention to the effectiveness of measures planned.

According to its Rules of Procedure, GRECO requested Turkey to provide a report by Sept. 30, 2017, on action taken to implement the pending recommendations. It also invited the secretary-general of the Council of Europe to send to the minister of foreign affairs of Turkey a letter drawing attention to the situation and to the need to take determined action to achieve tangible progress as soon as possible.

GRECO is a Council of Europe body that aims to improve the capacity of its members to fight corruption by monitoring their compliance with anti-corruption standards. It helps states to identify deficiencies in national anti-corruption policies, prompting the necessary legislative, institutional and practical reforms. Currently it comprises the 47 Council of Europe member states, Belarus and the United States of America.

Turkey was shaken by two corruption investigations that became public on Dec.17-25, 2013 in which senior government members were implicated. The Turkish government, which termed the investigations as a “coup attempt,” covered up the investigations by immediately replacing the judges and prosecutors and sending the police officers who revealed corruption to prison.

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