A group of civil society organizations called on the MPs to honor their overdue commitments by the end of tenure. In a news conference at IPN, representatives of the NGOs enumerated seven bills whose adoption is groundlessly delayed by the lawmakers. The initiators called this campaign “Countdown to the fulfillment of the Government’s promises: Returning to the seven priorities”.
One of the overdue bills refers to the institution of electoral gender quotas. Secretary of the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections Nicolae Panfil said the politicians will be harshly penalized if Parliament does not pass this bill in the final reading. “This bill should oblige the parties to take these quotas into account when compiling the lists of candidates for elections. It’s important to adopt this bill now because the next four years of government will depend on the coming elections,” he stated.
Another bill regulates party funding. Nicolae Panfil noted that this bill is crucial for holding free and fair elections in Moldova and will guarantee a better life in the next four years. It is important that the bill be passed in the final reading before the start of the election campaign. “We witness a multitude of activities that are political in character. But these activities will not be reported by parties if these provisions are not adopted,” he said.
The third bill concerns the mechanisms needed for ensuring the functioning of the law on the strengthening of the financial sustainability of civil society, known as the 2% law. In the absence of these mechanisms, the nongovernmental organizations cannot really benefit from the support provided by the people. Andrei Brighidin, development, monitoring and assessment director at East Europe Foundation, said the implementation of this law will allow the NGOs to get more financing for carrying out statutory activities. In practice, the implementation mechanism requires that the responsible authorities work out formulas that would allow the tax payers to support the NGOs.
The head of the National Participation Council Sergiu Ostaf said the bill on media ownership transparency should also be adopted in the second reading as the people must know who the owners of media outlets are. “It’s important to know who has a monopoly or dominant positions in this field and who controls the mass media,” he stated.
Another overdue bill is the bill on tobacco control. Deputy head of the National NGO Council Ghenadie Turcanu said this bill could remain unpassed in the second reading as the tobacco industry, which is the greatest opponent of these regulations, finds lobby among ministers and lawmakers who propose amendments that do not improve the law. On the contrary, the amendments make an exception in favor of those from the tobacco industry, which is leave a window open for them.
The seven bills include the bill on the privatization of public property. The representatives of the NGOs said the lack of transparency affects the public interests and arouses suspicions of corruptibility. The best mechanism would be an information portal with data about each privatization project, from the moment the property is put up for sale until it is privatized. Currently, it is known only the list of property that is to be privatized, not yet the situation of each facility separately.
The bill on the promotion of integrity in the public sector is last of the seven overdue bills. Head of the Anticorruption Alliance Olga Bitca said that even if this bill was two times in the Government’s agenda, it hasn’t been yet approved. The bill institutes the notion of ‘conflict of interests’ in the work of the National Integrity Commission, which is very important for such a commission. The bill also suggests that a larger number of categories of people vulnerable to corruption should be covered by this law, like the judges. “It’s important that these provisions be adopted and that the testing done at present cover also the sectors and categories of agents with a higher risk of corruptibility,” stated Olga Bitca.
The campaign “Countdown to the fulfillment of the Government’s promises: Returning to the seven priorities”, within which these calls to the government are made, was launched by the National Participation Council, the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, the Anticorruption Alliance, and the Civic Initiative for Integrity in the Public Service.
