Skopje, 29 September 2022 (MIA) - Fighting corruption is visible only in theory and rarely in practice, however, citizens' awareness of the negative consequences of corruption is increasing, said the participants in the final conference within the project "Monitoring of national actions for combating corruption" which took place Thursday in Skopje. In addition to other institutional representatives, the President of the Institute for Human Rights, Margarita Caca Nikolovska, and the President of the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption, Biljana Ivanovska, attended the event, who presented the conclusions of monitoring implementation of the National Strategy for Prevention of Corruption and Conflict of Interest (Anticorruption Strategy), through the realization of the Government measures and initiatives envisaged in the plan "Action 21" and plan on good governance policy within the project “Monitoring of national actions for combating corruption.” Nikolovska said that the real efficient and effective fight against corruption is still at an unsatisfactory level, as well as that there is great dissatisfaction among the citizens, and a general opinion that corruption is present in every segment of social life. “What is the biggest problem is the suppression of corruption at the same time and the practice in the direction of responsibility for those who caused, supported and committed that corruption is at a very low level. This project is more related to what are now national actions for combating corruption. We are not yet at an enviable level, or we are at an initial level on what actions means in practice, what it means to show a real, efficient and effective fight against that corruption,” Nikolovska noted. With regard to the report resulting from the Anticorruption Strategy, Nikolovska said that the Parliament has not yet taken steps to put the Anti-Corruption Report on the agenda and for discussion, and conclusions should be drawn from that report. “A large number of institutions have their own plans to fight against corruption, but it is still at the level of theory, in practice we still do not have any results. In the future, the Institute will engage more in monitoring the activities of the bodies responsible for fighting corruption,” she underlined. The State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption head Biljana Ivanovska highlighting the challenges in implementing the 2021-2025 National Strategy for the Prevention of Corruption and Conflict of Interest, underlined that the adoption of their report in the Parliament is still pending. “By March 31, 2022, we submitted the annual report on the fulfillment of activities foreseen in the National Strategy, it was reviewed only by the Committee on Political System, with the indication that it should be submitted to the plenary session and adopted by the Parliament, and this would open the way to further supplement the Strategy,” Ivanovska said. She noted that the Parliament showed positive signals that the report will be adopted in the near future. According to Ivanovska, although no visible results can be seen in practice, according to the reports on corruptions submitted to the Commission, the awareness among citizens is changing, i.e., the atmosphere is changing in a positive sense. At the same time, Deputy PM for good governance policies Slavica Grkovska said that progress in combating corruption requires energy and gradual work. “In this short period, we achieved good, I would say excellent cooperation with the Anti-Corruption Commission, with the State Audit Office, we regularly raise questions and give directions in fulfilling the recommendations. I am aware that unfortunately, this kind of progress cannot happen overnight, these are policies that require a lot of energy to get closer centimeter by centimeter, but the main goal is important, however, we are making utmost possible efforts, but to initiate more visible results in the public, we need longer time,” Grkovska said. The event was also attended by Eric Meyer, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of the United States, and Agim Nuhiu, Deputy Minister of Justice, regarding the commitments of the Ministry of Justice on the Judicial Reform Strategy for the period 2023-2028. The project “Monitoring of national actions for combating corruption” is funded by the US Embassy to Skopje. The goal of the project is to monitor the implementation of the National Strategy for Prevention of Corruption and Conflict of Interest (Anticorruption Strategy), through the realization of the Government measures and initiatives envisaged in the plan “Action 21.”