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Switzerland still gets poor marks on fighting corruption

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With regard to the federal courts, the committee criticises the fact that party affiliation is still the decisive factor for candidacies. Keystone-SDA

Switzerland is still not getting good marks from the Council of Europe’s Group of States when it comes to fighting corruption.

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Although some progress has been made, not all recommendations have been satisfactorily addressed or implemented in Switzerland, according to the latest report by the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (Greco). Greco and the Federal Office of Justice published the report on Thursday.

Greco criticises the lack of progress made by members of parliament. The declarations on vested interests submitted by government ministers don’t contain any quantitative data or liabilities, and they are not scrutinised by the Swiss parliament. Deliberate errors aren’t able to be uncovered in this way.

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And there is still no specific advisory centre for government ministers on integrity issues. They also aren’t trained on the topic.

With regard to the federal courts, the committee criticises the fact that party affiliation is still the decisive factor for candidacies. Greco writes that this may push the candidates’ competencies into the background. Judges continue to donate to their parties.

According to a survey of judges, they themselves want to completely sever the traditional link between parties and court members when it comes to mandate contributions. A majority would like to see the system reformed. This was the result of a survey published by the Swiss Association of Judges at the beginning of October.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

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