The Civil Council for monitoring the Center for Fighting Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCCEC) announced its new make-up on Friday, August 12, after the terms of three members expired, Info-Prim Neo reports. The new members were selected in a contest. They are Vitalie Iordachi, delegated by the Association of Lawyers for Human Rights, Vladimir Bezede, named by the National Union of Court Officers, and Adrian Lebedinschi, delegated by the Institute for Protecting the Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms. Former chairman Grigore Ciocan stated he was unhappy to leave without obtaining the status of juridical person for the Council and salaries for its members. “We’re working as volunteers and the monitoring capacity of the members must be improved”, he said. “The Anticorruption Center is a young institution, but has a certain specific, and those who monitor it need a special training”, added the former chairman. Grigore Ciocan told Info-Prim Neo that the main goal of the Civil Council was to raise the transparency of CCCEC’s activity. “The Council evaluates the annual reports of the Center, its performance and offers some recommendations. Yearly, the Council sends monitoring reports with the necessary recommendations to the Government, Parliament and President’s Office”, he explained. Deputy Minister of Justice Vladimir Grosu, who attended the meeting, supported the idea of wages for some of the members of the Civil Council, but was reluctant about offering the status of juridical person. He appreciated the work of the Council and its role of raising the awareness of society regarding the anticorruption culture. “People must understand corruption is a shame. They must change their mentality. Only this way we’ll have efficiency in the activity of law enforcement bodies”, stressed Vladimir Grosu. Gheorghe Russu, CCCEC deputy director, thinks the Civil Council is an innovation for our society and it helps ensure that principles like integrity, transparency, responsibility and professionalism are respected in the activity of the Anticorruption Center. The Government decision regarding the Civil Council for monitoring the Center for Fighting Economic Crimes and Corruption was published on November 2008.