Anti-Corruption Alliance worried about actions of public institutions having benefited from CTP assistance

The Anti-Corruption Alliance is worried about the actions of some public institutions having benefited from assistance within the Country Threshold Program (CTP) for Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. Five NGOs, member of the Alliance, have observed those five sectors of the CTP. “Generally they have appreciated as positive as possible the work of the Government and of the American partners involved in those over 100 activities under the CTP,” stated Anti-Corruption Alliance secretary Mircea Esanu on February 27, at conference called “The civil society and media against corruption: What's next…?” The NGOs have also positively appreciated the openness for cooperation with the civil society the monitored public institutions displayed. The index of institutional openness reached 4.1 points on a scale of 5, by the end of the monitoring. “At the same time we should view this monitoring within the social context of Moldova. On the one hand we see how the public institutions offer us, the monitors, good quality information in reasonable time. On the other hand, there have been about 300 cases in courts for the last 2-3 years filed by citizens and journalists who claimed to be forbidden the access to information,” Mircea Esanu said. He has reminded a visible contradiction. “On the other hand, the Interior Ministry has benefited from assistance under the CTP, including the Internal Security Direction. Now we see extremely worrying scenes when policemen raid TV stations without search warrants and sequester equipment. Even three days after this event, the Internal Security Service has no reaction and we don't know if they have started any internal investigation,” the secretary said. The alliance also has doubts as to the Civil Council monitoring the Economic Crimes and Corruption Combating Center: “Unfortunately now it has access only to the public information, what means we'll have another institution financed with the tax-payers' money, which yet does not bring more light.” “Although we realize that the impact of the anti-corruption activities at the citizens' level will emerge in 2-3 years only, we believe the changes should occur faster in the institutions which have been monitored and benefited from the CTP,” concluded the Anti-Corruption Alliance secretary. The Alliance's monitoring is part of the Program on Strengthening the monitoring capacity of the Moldovan civil society, which is implemented by the Academy for International Development (AED) with the technical support from IREX, and is financed by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and run by USAID withing the CTP. Through the CTP, the Moldovan Government committed to continue, with the support of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the reforms in decreasing corruption in five sectors. The Government has benefited from assistance worth $24.7 million from the US Government. The measures envisaged by the CTP were to be achieved from 2007 to 2008.