CoE experts call for practicable conflict-of-interest law

The Law on conflict of interest must not exist just on paper but also implemented in practice, said Quentin Reed, expert of the Council of Europe, during an international conference on Tuesday debating the conflict-of-interest bill. Among the objections to the bill cited by Quentin Reed was its ambiguity in formulating the definitions as well as the obligations of the civil servants. According to the expert, the draft doesn’t clearly establish either a regulatory authority that would observe its implementation. Quentin Reed added that the Law mustn’t be regarded as a solution by itself. It will only work if coupled with other pieces of legislation, whose formulation should be as important as the drafting of the mentioned law is. Vladimir Turcan, chair of the parliamentary committee on legal and immunity matters, sees the future law as an instrument of real social importance for combating the irregular lobby generating corruption. Turcan says that the proposals and recommendations made by national and international experts will be taken into account, and hopes that in the course of the spring-summer session next year Parliament will pass the bill in second reading. Recently, Cristina Cojocaru, project coordinator at the Corruption Prevention Centre, has termed the Law on conflict of interest “a paper tiger”. Cristina Cojocaru believes that this law was created under the pressure of the international community, which has been urging the government to regulate the conflict of interest. The expert has mentioned, in particular, that the bill doesn’t provide viable control mechanisms and some of its provisions can hardly be put into in practice.