About 50 nongovernmental organizations signed a statement by which they plead for declaring 2019 the year of the fight against corruption. The NGOs said this phenomenon affects the functioning of public services, the rule of law and the business environment. They note that corruption influences life and the level of welfare of each citizen and the ensuring of people’s democratic rights, IPN reports.
The statement says the problem of corruption during the past few years was a constant priority for the citizens and this was confirmed by numerous opinion polls and international rankings. At the end of 2018, over 50 representatives of civil society, the mass media and the private sector requested the authorities to declare 2019 the year of the fight against corruption. But the authorities ignored the request.
At the end of this January, Transparency International published the Corruption Perception Index for 2018, according to which Moldova gained 33 points, being placed among the last again. The signatories remind that the last Public Opinion Barometer revealed that more than 90% of the citizens are not satisfied with what the administration does to fight corruption, while 35% place corruption among the top three things that concern them the most.
“Corruption is also one of the main obstacles to developing businesses in the Republic of Moldova. According to a study of 2017, 69.2% of the entrepreneurs who took part in the poll said the corrupt practices and corruption are broadly spread in the national business community,” runs the statement.
The signatories consider it is important to include the problem of corruption in the public agenda and to identify methods of preventing and combating this.
The statement was signed by 48 organizations, among which are the Association of Independent Press, the Independent Journalism Center, the Journalistic Investigations Center, the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT, the Foreign Policy Association, the Legal Resources Center of Moldova, the Moldova Center for Policies and Reforms, the Independent Think Tank Expert-Grup, the Institute for Development and Social Imitative “Viitorul”, the Institute for Public Policy, WatchDog.MD, and Transparency International.
