President of Italy’s National Anti-Corruption Authority Raffaele Cantone in an interview with Blic daily explained how the quality of people’s lives improves once the fight against corruption starts producing tangible results.
Cantone paid a visit to Belgrade on the occasion of the official launch of a two-year EU Twinning project “Preventing and combating corruption“, worth EUR2 million which will enable cooperation between Serbia and relevant institutions from Italy and Spain.
Drawing examples from Italy’s experience, he told Blic how the quality of life in Serbia could improve as the fight against corruption gathers pace.
“The quality of citizens’ lives improves simultaneously with the improvement of quality of services and as the corruption decreases, the quality of services improves,“ Cantone said, citing health sector – one of the areas with the most rampant corruption in Serbia – as an example of good practice.
“Italy systematically controls medical examination waiting lists which served as a fertile ground for corruption. For example, if someone did not want to wait, they could easily bribe one of the medical staff and move further up the list,“ said Cantone, adding that precise control systems of issues as such guarantee that citizens receive equal treatment.
As another positive example, President of Italy’s National Anti-Corruption Authority cited public procurement control.
“Public procurement control allows broader and better competition which consequently leads to lower prices. This way, you can make savings in public procurement,“ he added.
He said that control establishment opened up the possibility for everyone to take part in a tender of public procurement and indirectly led to improvement of citizens’ lives.
During his yesterday’s visit, Cantone met with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic who thanked him for the assistance stressing it was an expression of Italian Government’s support to Serbia’s European path.
