Thaindian News

Havana, Feb 21 (IANS/EFE) Control, prevention and participation by the community are “essential” in Cuba’s battle against corruption and indiscipline in state corporations, the Communist-ruled island’s controller general said.

“The job of dealing with corruption and taking control of state finances is a matter for all revolutionaries,” and the first control “has to start with each of us individually”, Gladys Bejerano said in an interview published in the Sunday edition of the official daily Juventud Rebelde.

The fight against corruption has been a “banner issue” for the government of President Raul Castro, who in 2009 created the Controller General’s Office to conduct audits on hundreds of state companies and institutions.

For Bejerano, who is also one of Cuba’s vice presidents, public involvement in fighting corruption and illicit activities “needs real participation and is not just a matter of form”.

“When we speak about organizing a comprehensive fight against corrupt activities, indiscipline and disregard for the law, we’re thinking about all levels, and that includes the community,” she said.

“If someone sells it’s because someone else is buying. And we say nothing. The people aren’t responsible for the black market, it’s the responsibility of whoever has the product and doesn’t manage it correctly - but dealing with that situation has to be done by all of us. Because if we lose the revolution, who loses? Those in charge of managing goods and every one of us,” she said.

“We have to educate people in their role as inspectors,” she said.

The problem of corruption has been an important feature of recent addresses by Raul Castro, who has described it as “one of the worst enemies of the revolution”.

–IANS/EFE
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