Corruption risks compromise the democratic progress made by Moldova, Transparency International-Moldova says in the new National Integrity System Assessment report compiled within an EU-funded regional project, which was launched in Chisinau on July 29. The report says the efforts to improve democratic government in Moldova were undermined by the corrupt political parties and judiciary system, IPN reports.
The report shows that all 13 National Integrity System pillars – the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, public sector, the police, the Central Election Commission, the ombudsperson, the Audit Office, anticorruption authorities, political parties, the mass media, civil society and private sector – are vulnerable to corruption, especially political parties, Parliament, and the judiciary branch. The experts said this system must be reformed.
The report says that owing to the democratic government during the last four years, the Republic of Moldova has improved its position in the international rankings of free elections, democracy, civil society activism, media freedom, good governance, judiciary freedom, business environment, and competitiveness. Systemic corruption, however, remains a major problem. Moldova scores a mere 35 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index of 2013 (where 0 means highly corrupt and 100 least corrupt).
In the conference held to present the report, Transparency International – Moldova director Lilia Carashchuk said the lack of transparency in party financing generates political corruption that affects the integrity of Parliament. The oligarchs who started businesses and gained fabulous property by disloyal competition exert influence on Parliament and try to control the judiciary.
The report shows the achievement of palpable results in the fight against corruption is impossible without an independent, professional and credible judicial system. That’s why, in order to combat corruption in these areas with increased risk, Transparency International-Moldova recommends accelerating the justice sector reform and the reform of the prosecution service, increasing party financing transparency and strengthening the professional and technical capacities of the National Integrity Commission so as to verify the income and property statements of public functionaries and implement policies to address the conflicts of interest.
According to the report, Moldova was the first among the EaP countries to pass a law on the testing of the integrity of public servants, but it hasn’t yet adopted a mechanism for putting it into practice. The justice sector reform made certain progress. Over the last six months, about 10% of the judges resigned, being unable to cope with a system that is less tolerant to corruption. The reform of the prosecution service is delayed. The efforts made by the government to increase transparency in decision-making and to ensure access to information about the technical assistance offered to Moldova were overshadowed by the scandals in the banking system.
The National Integrity System Assessment report was produced in the framework of the regional project “National Integrity System Assessment in the European Neighbourhood East Region” that covers the EaP countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. It is implemented with the financial support of the European Union and East-Europe Foundation with the money provided by the Government of Sweden and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.
