High corruption risk persists in public institutions that implement TCP, monitoring report
The Government of Moldova has honored most of the commitments made under the Threshold County Program (TCP), aimed at preventing and combating corruption. At the same time, the concrete effects of these measures are not yet very obvious. These are the conclusions of the fifth and last monitoring report presented by the Anticorruption Alliance (AAC) on April 16, Info-Prim Neo reports.
The ACC secretary Mircea Esanu said that at least three institutions from the five areas covered by the TCP deserve being praised for the activities they carried out. The Ministry of Health even overfulfilled the commitments made, implementing a large number of clinical protocols. The State Main Tax Inspectorate and the Center for Combating Corruption and Economic Crime also managed successfully their activities.
However, the AAC ascertained that a high corruption risk still persists in most of the institutions. “We do not yet have clear proofs that the number of corruption cases in the institutions we monitored decreased. The acts of corruption are a frequent occurrence in the medical institutions and in the customs. We hope yet that the given reforms will produce the expected results during the next one-two years and will prevent corruption,” Mircea Esanu said.
After monitoring the judicial system, it was established that the political power exerts influence on the judiciary, there is no real interdependence between the components of the judicial system, the legislation is imperfect and not all the courts created efficient working conditions, while the number of judges and their salaries do not correspond to the increased workload.
The monitoring of the internal affairs system showed that the Ministry of the Interior has continuously worked on the planned activities, but has not yet carried them out successfully.
The Customs Service works rather efficiently on the activities, but they are carried out with delay. The new, computerized transit information system has been partly implemented and will become functional towards the end of 2009. The new integrated information system that enables to strictly and automatically monitor the movement of motor vehicles and goods over the border and to levy taxes at border crossing points was put into practice at all the customs posts in January 2009. The one-stop office method works efficiently at all the customs posts.
The monitoring of the implementation of the TCP in the fiscal system showed that two of the five planned activities have been practically finalized, while the other three are carried out with delay. The three measures are: the implementation of the self-service mechanism for taxpayers, the creation of Fiscal Mediation and the formulation and adoption of the law on fiscal mediation. Though the e-statements system is functional, a small number of beneficiaries use it and thus it cannot be objectively assessed.
Moldova’s Threshold Country Program commits the Government to undertake specific and needed reforms to control corruption with the help of the Millennium Challenge Corporation and provides material and technical assistance in five distinct areas. Moldova’s TCP is a two-year $24.7 million initiative. Five members of the ACC monitor how the Government implements the TCP.