Fraud cannot be eradicated by decree, warns SNA

Arturo Sanchez Jimenez

Newspaper La Jornada
Friday February 3, 2023, p. 9

The Citizen Participation Committee, which chairs the National Anti-Corruption System (SNA), warned that corruption cannot be eradicated by voluntarism or by decree.

Regarding the recent publication of an international report on the perception of corruption that placed Mexico as the worst evaluated in the matter among the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the members of the committee called on build and protect strongholds institutional and civic so that Mexico can not only improve its position in these measurements, but also to improve the development conditions of our country.

Year after year, the measurement that captures the perception of the state of corruption in our country yields worrying figures and alerts us that it cannot be eradicated either by voluntarism or by decree.the committee said in a statement.

No, corruption has not ended in any of the countries tracked by the index, nor will it be significantly reduced unless the rule of law is strengthened, we close the trenches of opacity, improve our oversight systems, and make decisive efforts to break through the impunity that lacerates us all, but with more force to the most vulnerable.

For the body, if it aspires to rise positions in international measurements on the perception of corruption and, more important than that, to improve the development conditions of our country, today threatened in the three orders of government and throughout our territory, we must realize that the best evaluated countries are not there by accident, but because they have institutions solid and immune to the swings of power.

Protect whistleblowers

He added that the best positioned nations also have a active citizen who understands that the government of the country is also their businessas well as with protection and guarantees to defend those who denounce corruption, and for journalists who expose it in their media.

If we do not build and protect these strongholds, we will not only stay in disappointing positions, but we will walk to the bottom of the indicators.