SNACC manager says tender corruption is costing millions

Tender corruption is currently costing millions of dollars worth of public wealth. This came in a statement for the Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC) manager, Ahmed al-Anisi, at a debate organized by the al-Saeed establishment last Thursday.  

Al-Anisi said that they cooperated with other authorities to issue cabinet resolutions to cancel all private authorizations. Al-Anisi helped in controlling some important corruption cases, pointing out that both public and opposition press were their source for discovering some of the corruption cases, mentioning the atomic energy case as an example. He reviewed their achievements as realized in the discussion of the scholarship case and the deductions on the students' bursaries at the higher Education Ministry. 

He ensured the recovery of YR 2 billion and YR 600,000, with several cases being referred to prosecution following long tedious procedures. He spoke of the difficulties which the authority faces due to the high public expectations, because of the image that accompanied the authority's formation. "It made people think that the authority is going to be an instant stop to corruption and will drag the corrupted people to stand bare before the public," he stated. This concept is motivated by the irrational political and media analysis which did not observe the law. 

Izadin al-Asbahi, the civil community sector's manager pointed to the legal challenge by saying that there is a need for a law that respects the culture, which imposes public punishment on corrupts, because this is more effective than the legal one. He called for strategic public values that promote community impartiality to make corruption a temporary phenomenon, considering that what is going on now is a social disaster.

Al-Asbahi pointed to international studies that showed the high corruption costs not only from the economic perspective but also from a moral point of view. Also the complete disintegration and failure of political parties and international institutions were stressed as part of the phenomenon. 

It is worth mentioning that SNACC, since its formation in 2006 as an implementation to the President's electoral program and the Yemeni signature to the international anti-corruption agreement, it was established at the presidential offices. It moved to their new premises in the previous Ministry of Education's buildings. It started working in two fronts: the organizational, legal and institutional building on the one hand, and the follow up of corruption case, peoples' complaints and reports over corruption.

According to the authority first quarter's report which is submitted to the president, they received since its establishment 141 reports, of corruption and financial transgressions on top of them five cases mounting to YR 20 billions. The other cases were varied, including 78 complaints and reports, and 16 of them were administrative related issues. The authority focused on six cases which cost the treasury about 20 billions as realized in al-Turba Taiz road which has transgressions of YR 116 billions 927.000, 781exceeding the approved cost by YR 971 million, 971.000 and 700.

There are also the scholarships cases and the financial trusts at the Higher Education Ministry, in which the authority discovered financial transgressions at cultural attachés in 74 countries. Their cost reached YR 16 billion, YR 81 million, and YR 146,000 during the period of 2001-2007. The authority gave the cultural attachés in 46 countries, a two month grace period to settle their financial pledges, before taking legal measures against them.

A survey showed that the Central Organization for Control and Auditing (COCA)'s discovered cases are 102 in 2005. 102 of these were convicted and 75 were referred to prosecution. In 2006, 11 cases were also discovered, 6 of them were referred to the court. Two of them received convictions. COCA discovered 6 cases in 2007 and referred only one case to court without any convictions. A report released by the Ministry of Interior covering 2006- 2007 records, showed 3836 corruption cases at a rate of 1905 and 1931 case respectively.

The cases were classified as 97 crimes against national economy in 2006 and 77 in 2007. 

The crimes against public employments were at a rate of 1,499 in 2006 and 1,542 in 2007. The crimes of justice disruption in the Interior Ministry's reports were 96 in 2006 and 56 in 2007 (240, 256) crimes respectively. The corruption cases according to the public prosecutor were 1,281 in 2005 whereas they were 1,414 in 2006. They were 1,758 in 2007, including 685 serious crimes in 2005. These serious crimes reached 709 in 2006 and they were 859 in 2007.

The investigations at the period were 29, 8, 18 and the collections and sequestration decisions were 77 in 2006. They were 70 in 2007, however there was no mentioning to cases in 2005.

Regarding money disclosure, the authority made a data base containing all those included in money disclosure. It made easy access to those who fail to submit their disclosures. The authority received up to now over 2004 declarations by last September. About 1,000 failures were threatened to be referred to prosecution. The authority says that Sana'a is the only money disclosure failing governorate. They disclosed that Yahiya al-Shoa'ibi, former capital's mayor and the present Civil Service Minister was the first to submit his money disclosure.

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