At the Faculty of Political Science within the course of Political system of the European Union on Monday, the 7th December 2009 a lecture on "Anti-corruption Policy in Croatia" was held, and as guest lecturers were USKOK deputy director Nataša Đurović and president of Transparency International Croatia, Zorislav Antun Petrović.

The President of the TIC, Petrović, said that TIC is global NGO organisation which works since 2000, and is intended to combat corruption and its consequences. Although it doesn’t uncover the perpetrators, TIC tightly cooperates with USKOK. Its main objectives are prevention and systemic change based on the European framework. Corruption and abuse of power to achieve own interests, any receiving and giving bribes and conflict of interest or nepotism are considered criminal acts, and as Petrović, president of TIC said, the main causes are being found in the absence of laws, regulations and institutions that control and repair the damage as well as in lack of transparency which leads to the disappearance of citizens' faith in the system and institutions. Signing a contract for private purposes achievement of own interests and writing private letters are just some of the forms of corruption that need to be eradicated. The European Union therefore serves as an example of a transparent system with better legal framework, the barriers of corruption are much more represented in the EU than in transition countries. It takes an active voluntary participation of citizens, the creation of effective control mechanisms and precise arrangement and defining of the law.

Degree of corruption in all countries is estimated according to the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) from 10 to 1 (where 10 is the least corrupt, and 1 most corrupt country). The results for 2009 showed that the least corrupt states are New Zealand (9.4) and Denmark (9.3), while Afghanistan and Somalia are at the very bottom with the indexes 1.3. and 1.1. As far as Croatia concerns, since 1999 the index was 2.9. and in 2009 4.1., but CPI has varied over the years and his abrupt reduction is perceived during negotiations with the EU.
TI spent in 2009 the research of the Global Corruption Barometer by which on the scale from 1 (uncorrupted) to 5 (most corrupt sector) is tended to establish public opinion on certain sectors and public administration bodies. Thus, the Croatian citizens marked judiciary as the worst placing it with 4.4 points at the top as the most corrupted. However, soon followed the civil services and private sector with 4.2 points, and the representative bodies and political parties with 4.1 points. The least corrupted were the media, showing up with 3.7 points. Given this high degree of citizens’ distrust in institutions, TI, as well as other associations and organizations, will endeavor to continue doing everything for Croatia to enter the European Union and regain that confidence, and will do it in cooperation with USKOK, Office for Combating Corruption and Organised Crime. About its existence, role and contribution spoke the USKOK deputy director Nataša Đurović.

USKOK started to operate in late 2001, and was established as a special state attorney for fighting corruption and organized crime. A number of County and municipal state attorneys used to carry out its function , and with his establishment he has taken a leading role in the entire state. USKOK has several departments, among which are the most important the Prosecution Department, the Department for Prevention of Corruption and Organised Crime and Public Relations, Department for Research and Documentation, and the Department for International Co-operation and Joint Investigations.
All employees within USKOK , from principal, deputy to the counselor and co-workers are succumbed to certain security checks, monitoring and control, and there is a specific ethical code. The credibility of institutions and confidence in their work can only be achieved by their adherence. As deputy director of USKOK noted, the criminal offences do not necessarily disregard the office. By the beginning of this year, the officials from the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) in Latvia were condemned for embezzling the seized money, bringing to the judicial system in this country loss of credibility. It turned out that neither the European Union countries are not immune to the problem of corruption, but seek to repair the damage quickly and efficiently.

When it comes to corruption, it’s often being referred to receiving and giving of bribes and abuse of position. Although bribery providers are the initiators, its recipients are official and responsible persons who bear the consequences for their misdeeds. If there is detection of the perpetrators, then the legal persons, citizens, NGO organizations and media need to cooperate, even though the media sometimes use their position and come forth with a story to the public prior to the State Attorney's Office. According to the new law, all pre-investigation procedures are considered a state secret, and once the investigations is known to the public knowing for sure that it won’t be jeopardised, USKOK allowes to publish the story. The same goes for the identity of registrants, who remain secret until an indictment against that person. In order to gather evidences and discover the perpetrators, a number of supporting activities are being used, such as monitoring and recording of telephone conversations and other communications from a distance, interception and collection of computer data, technical recordings of the room, secretly monitoring and recording, etc.
Given the growing number of scandals and indictments in recent times, it seems that these actions are successfully implemented. 'Dijagnoza', 'Indeks' and 'Podravka' are just some of the publicity’s well-known cases that have shaken the judicial system, which confirms the depth and the extent of the problematics regarding the European Union accession.