In 2016, the Republic of Moldova had a Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of 30 and ranked 123rd out of 176 countries, down from 33 points in 2015. The CPI 2016 result is the worst for the Republic of Moldova in the last five years, Transparency International - Moldova says in a press release, quoted by IPN.
Over two-thirds of the 176 countries and territories in this year’s CPI in the public sector fall below the midpoint of the scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). For comparison, Russia and Ukraine have a score of 29, while Romania ranks much better than the Republic of Moldova with a score of 48.
Transparency International - Moldova says that even if a series of anticorruption legislative acts were adopted in the Republic of Moldova in 2016, the reform of the anticorruption bodies continued, an agreement was signed with the IMF and the foreign financial assistance was unblocked, a series of events show that the adopted laws do not work, the democratic values are undermined and the Republic of Moldova is turning into a captive state.
So, officials responsible for the security of the banking system and money laundering prevention haven’t been yet held accountable for allowing the banking fraud. The activity of the recently created National Integrity Authority is hampered by legal gaps, the implementation of the policies concerning property and interest declaration and control being hindered. The resetting of the anticorruption system didn’t achieve its goal, while the problem of doubling of powers of the prosecution bodies and their state of captivity remain topical.
The orchestrated contests and naming of persons with integrity-related problems to public posts, abuse of the clause concerning personal data to hamper access to public information, attempts to control the public life of persons who are not loyal to the system on the pretext of preventing cybercrime (Big brother), selective justice and loud cases tried behind closed doors resulted in the worsening of the anticorruption situation.
In this connection, Transparency International - Moldova calls on the Moldovan authorities to sincerely promote the European values, democracy, supremacy of the law, and free competition. It also calls upon civil society to ardently protect these values, by the example of the countries in the immediate neighborhood.
Transparency International Chair José Ugaz said the countries with populist or autocratic leaders witness a decline in democracy, attempts to divide civil society, to limit the freedom of the media and to weaken independence of the judiciary.
The CPI 2016 is topped by Denmark and New Zealand with a score of 90 each, being followed by Finland and Sweden with a score of 89 and 88 respectively. Qatar witnessed the biggest regression, losing 10 points on last year. Among the Eastern Partnership countries, Georgia made considerable progress, scoring 57 points.
The CPI 2016 average score for the EU member states is 64.6, while for the EaP countries is 32.4.
