The battle against corruption The Prosecutor is not Alone. Pinar Del Rio Province Chief Prosecutor Reinaldo Cruz Rivera Msc. explains that the economic crisis of the 90s, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the drop in GNP combined to cause a transformation in, but not a loss of Cuban societal values. Alina M. Lotti / PDF. José Raúl Rodríguez Robleda
/ 18-11-2012 / 15:23 “Luxury creates leeches. Amongst the poor is a
sincerity which culls them” Judicial sector professionals have much to bring to the campaign against the global phenomenon of corruption. Such is the opinion of Pinar del Rio’s Provincial Chief Prosecutor Reinaldo Cruz Rivera Msc. who served for 20 years as this territory’s examining prosecutor. A specialist in Penal Sciences, Cruz Rivera stated that corruption represents an abuse of power that transcends economic crime (when a person affects an element or activity of the economy). It takes place when officials or administrations manipulate or take advantage of their positions or functions for their own benefit or for that of a third party. Prosecution assessments establish who are responsible for such crimes and evaluate the economic consequences. But the Prosecution Service should additionally determine what causes and conditions provoke such law-breaking, criminal indiscipline and actions that lead officials or workers to disregard the dutiful exercise of responsibility for whatever assigned mission. Nonetheless the task is not finished by detection of the problem, punishing the guilty parties or by the assignment of material responsibility for economic implications provoked. ri Proving these misdeeds facilitates the drawing of conclusions regarding circumstances that may lead to a managers' indignant behavior. In addition it can determine at what point internal and administrative control systems failed and allowed a manager abandon his moral characteristics and misdirect his conduct. Equally, the Prosecution Service could draw attention to the fact that more senior institutions did not comply with their responsibilities and had stopped controlling, questioning and administratively checking on their subordinates. You are talking about an extension of the preventative powers of Prosecution Services………………. We undertake preventative works to verify that economic entities in selected sectors or spheres are taking account of national programmes aimed at furthering economic expansion. For example if the main problems we encounter arise from the manner in which the Decree-Law which regulates the transfer of idle land is applied and that has a knock-on effect on public food supplies, then we should alert the nations leaders. It is important to remember that laws can organize and regulate but ultimately they must be applied by man. Another aspect of this is that the Prosecution Service has a section dedicated to attending to the public and dealing with complaints. So, if through a member of the public it becomes known that resources are not utilized appropriately in a particular place or there is obvious potential for misuse, we can issue a report on conditions and causes, communicate with those responsible for violations and ensure that they address the problems. During a legal process the prosecutor will not be satisfied by seeking only that a strict sanction be imposed on the corrupt party who has in some way affected the country’s economy. He has the facility to make declarations about the nature of the circumstances which underlie the person’s delinquent conduct. In a general sense the Prosecution Services preventative role is institutionalized and covered by law. Nevertheless the conduct of prosecutors is determined by the institutions own internal practise norms, not only in respect of corruption but also other issues of concern to us. What is the focus of this work within your province? Pinar del Rio is predominantly agricultural and our main efforts are centred on assuring economic growth for this sector. So it is logical that in fiscal examinations we do not lose sight of the national interest as determined by the party’s Guidelines on Economic and Social Policy. There has been an increase in the detection of acts of this type because the Prosecution Service is working better and the media promote public awareness about the harm caused. For as long as there are accusations the relevant authorities will respond . Depending on the quality of information we have, a worker may be called and warned. In other instances there are investigations, arrests and punishments. The Prosecution Service is not alone in this battle: the Interior Ministry and the Republic's Auditor General actively collaborate also. This, broadly speaking, describes their preventative roles. Is it possible to imagine socialism without corruption? We are not talking here about a recent phenomenon. It has been present in every socioeconomic system since the days of slavery. In our particular case people had for a time most of their needs satisfied and that ensured that this evil, part of the legacy of capitalism, was greatly diminished. The economic crisis of the 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the reduction in our gross national product, which by 1994 had bottomed out – all of these caused a transformation, not a loss as some like to say, of societal values. Cubans began to consider that it was fundamentally important to resist and to defend the conquests of the Revolution. In my opinion the value of resistance emerged. Cuba has never suffered from extensive acts of corruption. At certain times such acts were quite limited and did not have a high profile. But since 2000 the nation’s principal authrorities have identified that this social and political phenomena may have the potential to compromise the future of the Revolution. Within socialism there are allowances for the presence of corruption, crime and social indiscipline. It is within this context that, at a particular point in time, the National Office for Audits was established, followed by a Ministry for Audits and Controls and we currently have a Comptroller General who is better positioned still to confront such flagrancies. Has there been an increase in this type of activity? The means by which we deal with these activities are today more organized and better coordinated which means that, when we talk of the phenomenon in a Cuban context, it could be said that the detection rate, not the problem, has increased. We should keep in mind what our Commander-in-Chief said at the commemoration of the founding of our Revolutionary Police Force in the Karl Marx theatre on 5 January 1999. He used the occasion to reflect on the nature of such crime and offered us the means to ensure we would not be incompetent in our responses. Socialism is better equipped than other systems to reduce such crimes to manageable levels. They will not be wiped out all of a sudden because some social inequalities that induce marginalization are still present. They can, in turn, lead to particular persons involving themselves in criminal activity as a means to satisfy one need or another. Http://www.trabajadores.cu/news/20121118/2513315-la-fiscalia-no-esta-sola |
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Lucha contra la corrupción
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