TBILISI: Corruption is a malignant tumor, removable only with pain. So widespread is it in my country that almost every state initiative seems tainted by corruption, with the result that the implementation of some governmental programs is now highly suspect in the minds of many ordinary people. Towering levels of corruption damage not only the authority of government at home, but the very standing of Georgia as an independent state abroad. To maintain that independence, to fulfill our domestic and foreign policy priorities, the suppression of corruption must be my country's most urgent priority.
TBILISI: Corruption is a malignant tumor, removable only with pain. So widespread is it in my country that almost every state initiative seems tainted by corruption, with the result that the implementation of some governmental programs is now highly suspect in the minds of many ordinary people. Towering levels of corruption damage not only the authority of government at home, but the very standing of Georgia as an independent state abroad. To maintain that independence, to fulfill our domestic and foreign policy priorities, the suppression of corruption must be my country's most urgent priority.