In his recent press conference some time ago, First Vice President, Bakri Hassan Saleh, said that the corruption control doesn’t require new laws, but a political will with full implementation to the existing laws.
It seems that the political arena is expected to witness in the upcoming days vital movements if we link what the First Vice President testified in his press conference and the hot-line telephone in the Republican Palace to receive any complaints from the citizens.
Irrespective the timing of the FVP statement, we believe that his talk over the corruption touched the reality which the officials should not hide behind.
However, the corruption spread tremendously in the last two decades and all the government attempts to control it failed including the formation of anti-corruption commission under the direct supervision of the Presidency.
Corruption doesn’t mean direct stealing of the public money, but it includes the corruption of the system itself through which billions of public money were mislaid.
It became possible for a junior employee to cheat in the specifications of any contract against receiving embezzlements from the corrupt contractor who in turn receives all the government payments as agreed in the contract.
The ball is now in the court of the public to take the initiative to report cases of corruption but with evidences to be shown rather than being just accusations.
It is true that the accused person is innocent until proven guiltily, but it is very difficult for an ordinary person to collect irrefutable evidence about the corrupt individuals or institutions, simply because those corrupt are very careful in hiding their crimes.
We believe that the government should shoulder the responsibility in conducting serious investigations about anybody or institution which the public unanimously apparent corruption despite the lack of material evidence.
Such investigations could clear up any confusion and send a message of relief among the public.
As the proverb goes charity begins at home, we urge the concerned authorities in the government to hear the accusations targeting its institutions and officials, and conduct the investigation according to that, because as we said it is very difficult to collect concrete material evidence against any accused person or institution.