The head of Transparency International Hungary was one of four to resign from the Hungarian government's Anti-Corruption Coordination Board because they felt their work was wasted, the corruption watchdog confirmed on Tuesday, according to dpa. Transparency International Hungary said in a statement sent to the state-owned news agency MTI that the work of the advisory board, set up by the government in the summer of 2007, had become "irrelevant." None of the board's recommendations had been adopted since February, and its workings had become "disordered and unreliable," Transparency said. Noemi Alexa, who heads Transparency's Hungarian office and Balazs Denes, head of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union both quit the government body along with two experts from Hungarian universities. Transparency International does not rule out future cooperation with the Hungarian government, providing it represents "real anti- corruption work." Corruption remains a stubborn problem in Hungary, despite numerous government initiatives in recent years to tackle it, from coordinated raids on small shops and markets to a simplified tax system for entrepreneurs and micro-businesses. Conservative estimates suggest that the black and grey market accounts for about a fifth of economic activity in Hungary. Bribes to health service doctors and minor public officials remain a fact of life for many Hungarians.
