I guess each country has its own rules and habits of fighting corruption. Here is the Turkmen style, keeping in mind that our country has some of the most widespread corruption in the world.
In a practice dating back to Niyazov’s day, ministers are regularly sacked. But the current regime seems to like sacking ministers and workers despite successes. The heads of transporation infrastructure were dismissed for “failing to fulfill their duties” even though the first phase of a new rail has been started. Meanwhile, the grain return for 2013 is being praised for meeting targets — and voila, some grain workers have been sacked, likewise for dereliction of duty. Weirdly, these incidents have been presented as anti-corruption efforts.
Here’s what some of my fellow citizens have been observing. Basically, as bribery and patronage grows deeper in our country, it also grows larger, with even distant relatives of state officials asserting their “right” to special treatment, privileges, and a piece of the money pie. Call it “VIP syndrome”: for example, a relative of the head of the state agency for “order on the roads” (policing roads) is notorious for not stopping at red lights. So, it starts to become incumbent upon the central government to dismiss state officials in a public show of dishonor, effectivly denuding an entire clan or network of its VIP status in front of the public.
Still, there is one VIP whose family and friends will always be above such embarassment…
