Recent analyses show employees of the local public administration often commit abuses, exceed their authority and take illegal decisions and the communities suffer as a result. The rigged tender contests, illegal land sales and other illegalities consequently cause serious damage to localities. A number 62 criminal cases over corruption in the local public administration were started so far this year and these involved mayors, district heads, secretaries of local councils, division heads and others, vice director of the National Anticorruption Center Lidia Kireoglo stated in a meeting of the parliamentary commission on national security, defense and public order, IPN reports.

Lidia Kireoglo said the phenomenon of corruption in the local public administration is caused by the lack of transparency in the process of transferring public property to the private sector, non-involvement of citizens in the identification and reporting of cases of corruption and also by the lack of financial stimuli. “We hope the last aspect will be swiftly excluded from the list of vulnerabilities as the Government took particular decisions concerning the rise in the salaries of employees of the local public administration,” stated the official.

In the course of this year, officers of the National Anticorruption Center identified such cases as the leasing out of land without holding public tender contests, setting of land rental or selling prices that do not correspond to the regulated ones, issuing of urbanism certificates and authorizations in the absence of mandatory documents, issuing of authorizations for changing the purpose of buildings in the absence of feasibility studies, privatization of constructions at diminished prices, rigging of public tender contests for the purchase of goods and services and appropriation of funds in the process of performing building and repair works.

At the end of the hearings, MP Eugen Carpov said a decision that will highlight the necessity of improving the legislation and of extending the powers of state institutions in the monitoring of the activity of local public authorities will be approved.