Parliament should not hurry to adopt the changes proposed to the Law on the National Anticorruption Council (CNA) because they diminish the institution’s autonomy and independence. Such a conclusion was formulated by the Resource Center for Human Rights (CReDO), IPN reports.

The main changes include the dismissal of the CNA’s administration by Government decision, reduction in the tenure from five to four years, appointment of the Center’s director without the participation of other players rather than the governors, and dismissal from post arbitrated by the Government.

According to the CReDO director Sergiu Ostaf, as a result of these changes, the problems mentioned in the informative notes of the bill will not be solved. An institution that combats corruption cannot be subordinate to the Cabinet. In the worst case, it can be subordinate to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

“The CNA has been lately used as a political ‘cudgel’ in doing selective justice and in leakages of information,” said the expert, stressing that the institutions investigating acts of corruption need greater autonomy and independence.

The bill proposed by a group of MPs on April 30 was endorsed by the legal commission on appointments and immunities on May 3 and is to be debated in Parliament.