SVF held a public meeting in cooperation with " Al.Atta Charitable Association" at Beit Hanoun on Thursday May 6, 2010 on (Corruption and its impact on Youth), attended by many graduated and women. The social activist Mr. Jaber Abu Zaher from the" SVF" was the main speaker at the meeting. Mr. Abu Zaher defined the concept of corruption; the exploitation of power by a public officer for personal interests. The aspects of corruption include administrative, financial, social and political corruption that are represented in bribe, nepotism, blackmailing and plundering of the public funds.
The reasons behind the spreading of the corruption phenomenon lie in many manifestations of poverty, ignorance and lack of knowledge of individual rights, the weakness of monitoring bodies in the state, the political will weakness to combat corruption, low salaries in the public sector, the high standard of living, the absence of media freedom, preventing citizens accessing information and public records and the weakness of civil society organizations and private institutions role in monitoring the government performance.
Corruption has many risks on various aspects of political, economic and social life along with its great impact on youth; it leads to loosening the moral values and frustration, the spread of indifference and passivity, intolerance and extremist visions and the crime spread as a reaction for ethics' collapse. Corruption creates unprofessionalism, loss of work's values, the negligence of performance criteria of duties. It increases the feeling of hatred, inequality and poverty among community segments.
During the discussion, a participant asked about the mechanisms of corruption combat, Mr. Abu Zaher answered corruption and its reasons and aspects must be defined to reduce the spreading or the legitimacy of such phenomena and enact suitable punishment rules against perpetrators. Finally, Mr. Abu Zahir stressed the important role played by the civil society institutions to promote community monitoring.