The Council for Coordination between the anti-corruption commissions in Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) discussed the corruption conditions in the exchange of municipal property for private property, Parliament's Press Centre said.

The discussion was also attended by representatives of the Supreme Cassation Prosecution Office (SCPO).

The SJC proposed that a possibility for judicial control be envisaged in managing municipal property on the terms of the Code of Administrative Procedure. The SCPO said a possibility could also be envisaged for the alienation of certain types of property to be effected through a referendum in the respective population centre.

The sides also considered ways to protect those who report corrupt practices.

Parliament's Anti-Corruption Committee noted the problem of illegal lumbering in various parts of this country.

While they are perfectly legal and designed as a tool for property consolidation, exchanges of municipal, state-owned and private land and other property are widely suspected to be a corruption generator in which the State or municipality gives up lucrative assets in exchange for much cheaper ones.

During Question Time in Parliament on Friday, Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil said that such property exchange is a way to increase the price of farm land, as consolidated land is more expensive. "The Agriculture Ministry implements the laws of this country and should not be expected to stop carrying out procedures which are legally prescribed," he said.

Kabil said the practice of indiscriminate approval of property exchanges has been stopped. He cited as an example the period between 1998 and 2001, when 2,782 exchanges of property from the State Land Stock were carried out. "Since I became Minister, I have approved 314 exchanges," he said.

Responding to the considerable public interest in the exchange of property from the State Land Stock, Kabil has ordered all such transactions to be posted on his Ministry's website.

*BGNES photo