Civil Council monitoring ECCCC picks leader

The Civil Council monitoring the Economic Crimes and Corruption Combating Center (ECCCC) has elected its president and deputy president. The decisions have been voted on Thursday, January 22, at the first joint sitting with the ECCCC, Info-Prim Neo reports. The position of a president will be held by Alexandru Muravschi, the project manager of the Public Association “The Institute of Public Policies.” The deputy president will be Grigore Ciocanu, unemployed for the moment. ECCCC's deputy director Vitalie Verebceanu stated that this monitoring council will represent the civil society and is meant to give recommendations and even consultations to employees of the center on different matters. “In any democracy, a society can not be absolutely free, because it yields a part of its liberties to law enforcement bodies, and it gets security and guarantee in exchange from the state. In its turn, the society has the right to monitor the work of law enforcement bodies. Thus, the civil council is a new instrument for Moldova, by means of which the way the power is used in the work of law enforcers will be supervised,” said Gregory Diamond, the legal advisor of the US Millennium Change Corporation Program. The Civil Council has 7 members: [Corneliu Dodu], the president of SA “The Moldova Stock Exchange,” [Iurie Cuprianov], the president of the Association “Humanitarian Development, Scientific and Practical Researches, Psychological Methods and Rehabilitation “Kaylas,” [Dorian Dumitru Picalau], the executive director of the legal firm “Vistarn,” [Eduard Pricop], a member of the public association “The Association of Auditors and Audit Societies from Moldova,” Diana Zgardan], the chief of the public association “The National Notaries’ League,” [Ruslan Borzin] a member of the Participative Development Program of the Communities administered by the Council for Researches and International Exchanges (IREX/Moldova) and [Marcel Burlacu], the consultant of the public association “The Alliance for Justice and Human Rights.” Creating a civil council for monitoring the work of the anti-coruption squad was provided in the Country Threshold Plan for Moldova within the Program of the US “Millennium Changes” Corporation, supported by the Strengthening Civil Society Monitoring Capacity in Moldova Program, implemented by the Academy for Educational Development, with the technical assistance of IREX.