Anticorruption Alliance Secretary says the Council for Monitoring CCCEC is in a hands-tied position

The limitations on the authority of the Civil Council for Monitoring the Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCCEC) make it nonfunctional, Mircea Esanu, the secretary of the Anticorruption Alliance, told Info-Prim Neo. According to him, the inefficiency of this monitoring group stems from the fact that it is not free to act as it should according to international practices. “In the international practice a Civil Council has greater authority, and the access to a wide range of internal documents, accessible in an ordinary manner, makes the monitoring truly possible, which is not the case of Moldova”, said Esanu. According to international practices, such civil monitors have access to employment contracts, to materials of the internal security service, as well as information collected during the investigation of certain cases. In Esanu's opinion, the Moldovan authorities are reluctant to amend the laws so that the Civil Council can have access to such kind of data. “So, what we'll finally have is a council financed by the government, with powers limited to the scope of the Access to Information Law, and, ultimately, an inefficient body”, thinks Esanu. In cases where the law is broken, there should be a group of professionals who, following precise rules, will have the right to judge the correctness of the respective institution's actions, while the results of the investigation should be made known to the general public. The Civil Council, says the secretary of the Anticorruption Alliance, should also be an instrument to monitor administrative, operational and personnel policies. Complaints from the citizens should be collected and redirected to the relevant authorities. At the same time, the Council should examine reports on disciplinary sanctions imposed by the CCCEC, as well as information from other institutions on the cases of corruption committed by the Center's staff. The Government approved the establishment of the Civil Council for Monitoring the CCCEC. The activity of monitoring the CCCEC is part of the commitments assumed by Moldova under the Threshold Country Program. According to its statute, the members of the Council will serve voluntarily, and only the participation in ordinary and extraordinary meetings will be remunerated.