DUSHANBE, December 13, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Over the past two years, officers from the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption have uncovered corruption cases practically in all structures, including the law enforcement agencies, the Tajik anticorruption agency director Sherkhon Salimzoda announced at a roundtable meet entitled “Specialized Anticorruption Institutions: Experience of Europe and Central Asia” in Dushanbe on December 12.

“Thus, an investigator with the Prosecutor-General’s Office was caught red-handed while taking bribe,” Salimzoda said.

Among the meeting participants were also the representatives of the Lithuanian anticorruption agency.  They shared with those present their experience in combating corruption.

Mr. Zudrunas Bartkus, an officer with Lithuania’s Service for Special Investigations, noted that although their agency has worked for already eleven years no corruption cases have been uncovered in the higher echelons of power.

We will recall that in a report released at a press conference in Dushanbe, Salimzoda revealed on December 9 that corruption cost Tajikistan some 89.6 million somoni.  More than 1,145 officers were implicated in wrongdoing and now face disciplinary action.  58 officials have already been sacked for engaging in corrupt practices, the anticorruption agency chief said.

Tajikistan ranked 150th out of 180 countries surveyed in Transparency International’s annual corruption perceptions index (CPI).