Communists fail in their attempt to fight corruption, AMN MP says

The present government failed to make progress in fighting corruption, all its acts being in fact only declarations, the first vice president of the Moldova Noastra Alliance Party (AMN), Veaceslav Untila, said at the Parliament’s plenary sitting on November 27, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. Veaceslav Untila invoked the high level of corruption in all the state institutions. He referred to the survey on perceptions and experiences with corruption in Moldova carried out by Transparency International among households and businesspeople. According to the survey, last year the Moldovans offered about 900 million lei in bribe. The businesspeople offered about 66 million lei bribe to customs officials, 36 million lei to tax inspectorates, 32.4 million lei to medical institutions. Representatives of households paid unofficially 153 million lei to medical institutions, over 87 million lei to customs officials, about 77 million lei to the police and 76.5 million lei to education establishments. The AMN MP also mentioned the results of another study – “Measuring Corruption: from survey to survey”. This survey revealed that 50 dollars on average are paid to officials of the Ministry of Information Development to be issued with identification card or passport, 194 dollars to be issued with a driver’s license and 305 dollars to have the vehicle registered. In order to convince the Communists colleague, Untila presented official statistics as well. A poll carried out by the Center for Combating Corruption and Economic Crime (CCCEC) and published early this September shows that over 52% of the respondents offered bribe to civil servants. “Even if the percentage was slightly decreased, the poll is a proof that Communists’ statements about their success in fighting corruption are not true,” Veaceslav Untila said. Untila reminded that Moldova makes practically no progress as regards the Corruption Perception Index. The most serious finding this year is that Moldova is not only unable to fight corruption, but also cannot absorb the large sums allocated by the foreign partners for the purpose. 24 million dollars was allocated to Moldova as part of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Threshold Country Program. The Council of Europe offered 3.5 million euros, the United Nations Development Program – 400,000 dollars. “Support is offered to us and money, but no headway is made,” the AMN vice president said. According to Untila, the foreign partners and the citizens do not trust the present government anymore. “What trust should we speak about when a person that was allegedly involved in international trafficking in drugs is reinstated in the post of minister,” the MP inquired, referring to the Minister of Internal Affairs Gheorghe Papuc. The last Public Opinion Barometer shows that 57% of Moldova’s population considers that the politicians are corrupt.