A heavy bureaucratic burden is the real cause of at least part of corruption, said Jānis Endziņš, head of the bureaucracy reduction task force established by the Prime Minister, in an interview.
According to Endziņš, excessive bureaucracy is effectively the godmother of corruption. He says this conclusion is based on his personal experience from several years ago, when he headed the Company Register of Latvia.
“At that time, registering a company took about a month. Naturally, businesses need speed, so they try to ‘solve the problem’ somehow. And quite plausibly—not always by the most legal methods,” Endziņš said.
He explained that under his leadership
the registration process was shortened to no more than three days.
“We achieved a system where a company could be registered through a single visit to one institution. What does that mean from a corruption perspective? There’s simply no reason to offer a bribe anymore—everything happens anyway,” Endziņš stressed.
In his view, wherever there are long procedures, excessively complicated approval processes, and what is commonly referred to as bureaucratic burden, these factors become the true cause of at least some corruption cases.
“Therefore, reducing bureaucracy not only brings economic benefits, but at the same time also helps reduce corruption and the shadow economy,” Endziņš concluded.
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