The pandemic has not affected the level of corruption in Latvia all that much, said chief of Corruption Prevention Combating Bureau (KNAB) Jēkabs Straume in an interview to journalists on Thursday, 28 October.
According to KNAB, no major changes have been observed during the pandemic. Corruption is a latent crime, and the pandemic and epidemiological restrictions do not directly affect corruption, said Straume.
At the same time, Straume does not deny that transparency when it comes to resolving certain pandemic problems «creates the soil for more acts of corruption».
«If we take into account the phenomenon with fake vaccination certificates, our observations suggest there has not such a major surge in other sectors when it comes to corruption levels,» said the chief of KNAB.
On 28 October KNAB commenced the social campaign Corruption iceberg. The goal of this campaign is promoting awareness of the negative consequences of corruption and reducing public tolerance of corruption.
A special environmental object was crafted for this campaign – the titular corruption iceberg. Throughout this campaign it will be available for all to see 11 November Riverbank near the Stone Bridge in Riga.
Latvian corruption watchdog chief says Covid-19 has not affected corruption levels
