Concept of Corruption

Corruption is the abuse of office by a civil servant or a person equivalent to a civil servant in order to obtain material or other personal benefit for themselves or another person, as well as the offering, giving or accepting of such benefit.

Corruption includes:

• seeking, demanding or accepting an unlawful benefit, such as a gift, service, promise or privilege;
• acting or failing to act in the performance of duties in order to obtain a benefit;
• offering or granting an unlawful benefit to a civil servant or a person equivalent to a civil servant;
• acting as an intermediary in carrying out such acts.

Corruption prevention is systematic activity aimed at increasing the resilience of public and private sector entities to corruption. It includes the identification, assessment, elimination and/or reduction of corruption risk factors by developing and implementing measures for creating a corruption-resistant environment.

Corruption-related criminal offences are criminal offences related to the seeking or obtaining of unlawful benefit.

These include:

• bribery, trading in influence, graft and abuse of office;
• criminal offences committed in the public sector or in the provision of administrative or public services by abusing powers and directly or indirectly seeking benefit for oneself or another person, namely:
  • unlawful registration of rights to property;
  • failure to perform official duties;
  • disclosure of a state secret;
  • unlawful financing of political parties and political campaigns;
  • fraud;
  • misappropriation of property;
  • squandering of property;
  • disclosure of a commercial secret;
  • legalisation of property obtained by criminal means;
  • submission of false data on income, profit or assets;
  • interference with the activities of a civil servant or a person performing public administration functions;
  • disclosure of an official secret;
  • forgery of a document or possession of a forged document.

They also include other criminal offences aimed at obtaining a bribe, committing graft, or concealing or disguising bribery, trading in influence or graft.

Corruption has a negative impact on public administration, reduces public trust in institutions and distorts fair competition.