A number of nongovernmental organizations and local media outlets were awarded by the Center “Contact” within the Gala of Good Practices for Preventing Corruption at the Local Level. “There are examples of civic activism and wish to change the situation at the local level and to fight the dirty phenomenon called corruption,” stated Sergey Neicovchen, executive director of the Center “Contact”, quoted by IPN.
According to Sergey Neicovchen, in our society, they have spoken about corruption for a very long time. The people must join efforts and fight together this phenomenon.
Ekaterina Yakovleva, project manager at the EU Delegation to Moldova, said it is well known that the phenomenon of systemic corruption affects each area of activity in the Republic of Moldova. Corruption undermines the country’s economic development and hampers poverty reduction. The fight against corruption remains the main subject on the EU-Moldova working agenda. “We work together with the authorities on the anticorruption reform, but civil society also plays an important role,” stated Ekaterina Yakovleva.
Valeriu Ciorba, coordinator of the information portal www.colonita.eu, which was awarded a first-level diploma, said the portal was designed to inform the people about the decisions of local authorities. Most of the meetings of the local council are broadcast online, while the decisions are scanned and published on the website. Valeriu Ciorba noted this thing should be done by the local authorities, which should ensure transparency in decision-making.
The regional paper “Cuvantul” of Rezina won a second-level diploma. The publication’s director Tudor Yashchenko said the editorial staff in the course of the year carried out a number of awareness-raising campaigns such as “Use of public money should be accounted for”, “Interests and property in sight”, and “Public money is my money”, which had a considerable impact in society. “We have bad relations with the authorities because they do not like the critical investigations and materials,” stated Tudor Yashchenko.
The Balti-based University Legal Clinic was awarded a third-level diploma. The institution’s representative Olesea Tabarcean said the fight against corruption started in 2006, when the Clinic became part of the Anticorruption Alliance and began to take measures in a number of areas. It initiated a number of projects at the local level and offered legal assistance to victims of corruption, about 1,500 persons. It also contributed to creating an optional module at the Balti Teacher Training University “A. Russo” for training jurists to fight corruption.
The initiative of the Center “Contact” forms part of the project “Transparency and responsibility of public authorities in joint activities of the mass media and local and regional NGOs” that is implemented with the financial support of the EU.
