MOSCOW, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Investigations Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has submitted a blueprint for countering corruption to a presidential anti-corruption working group, a committee spokesman said Wednesday.
"The blueprint outlines... the general principles of government policy in countering corruption... domestic and international experience in fighting corruption, and mechanisms for its implementation," Vladimir Markin said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a former lawyer, has made the fight against corruption one of his main goals since taking office in early May. He has headed a new anti-corruption council and has also given instructions to draw up a national action plan to counter corruption.
Kremlin administration chief Sergei Naryshkin, who heads the anti-corruption council's board, presented Wednesday a draft national anti-corruption program.
Under it, all government bodies in Russia are invited to adopt their own anti-corruption plans by November 1, 2008, Naryshkin reported to President Dmitry Medvedev.
A federal law on the fight against corruption should also be adopted by October 1, 2008, Naryshkin said.
Markin said Russian legislation still lacked a clear-cut definition of corruption and should therefore be brought in line with international legal practice and the provisions of those international treaties and conventions that Russia had signed.
"To achieve these goals, the blueprint provides for an array of measures designed to enhance the 'transparency' of executive agencies... and take effective action as regards citizens' complaints," he said.
The committee also proposes a system of incentives and safeguards for individuals who have provided reliable information about corruption, as well as mechanisms 'stimulating anti-corruption behavior' among civil servants.
