The activity of verifying the wealth and interests of public officials faces deficiencies and barriers of legislative and institutional nature. It is one of the conclusions of the Monitoring Report on effectiveness of the national integrity system and the activity of the National Integrity Authority (ANI), presented by the Independent Press Association and the project moldovacurata.md, IPN reports.
Petru Macovei, executive director of API, said that the national integrity system has some achievements, but also problems that prevent its functioning as desired by those who initiated the legislation.
Anticorruption expert Mariana Kalughin, one of the authors of the report, said that the government can influence the quality of ANI activity, including integrity inspectors. “The Integrity Council has the mission to examine the declaration of wealth and personal interests submitted by the president and the vice president of ANI, but also of the integrity inspectors,” said Mariana Kalughin. According to her, only civil society members should be able to do this.
Elena Prohnițchi, anti-corruption expert, said that among many problems that need to be solved are those related to the organizational structure of ANI and of the budget allocated to the institution. “The Integrity Council was unpredictable and had chaotic communication. The Council worked until the beginning of 2019 without having its own functioning and organization regulations, so this chaotic activity was not surprising,” said the API expert.
The absences from Integrity Council meetings affected the quality of its activity. “What surprised us was that there were so many unexcused absences. The Ministry of Justice was not prompt to dismiss the appointed member and nor did the Superior Council of Magistracy,” said Elena Prohnițchi.
The event took place within the project "Advocacy for the efficiency of ANI activity and the promotion of the integrity of the candidates to the general local elections 2020", implemented with the financial support of the Soros-Moldova Foundation’s Good Governance Program.
