ECCCC is contented with results of Anti-Corruption Conference, but civil society has critical attitude

The Economic Crimes and Corruption Combating Center (ECCCC) is contented with the results of the 4th Anti-Corruption National Conference, which was unfolded from December 9 to 10, in Chisinau. On the other hand, the non-governmental sector has a critical attitude toward the efficiency of the event, Info-Prim Neo reports. At the end of the conference, ECCCC director Sergiu Burduja, stated the event was successful. “The purpose of assessing the achieved progresses during 2008, in preventing and fighting corruption, and setting further tasks, was attained,” Sergiu Burduja said. According to Burduja, the proposals and objections, worded at the conference, were included in a resolution. Among them: modifying the legislation so as corruption acts were compulsorily punished with jail and with dismissal from function. Other proposals are about reassessing the importance of statistic data, strengthening the role of the domestic security subdivisions, defining the communication strategies of the law enforcers, etc. All suggestions are to be implemented by the ECCCC, jointly with the civil society. Asked by Info-Prim Neo, general secretary of the Anti-Corruption Alliance (an Alliance of NGOs) Mircea Esanu stated that this conference “was a good retrospective of manqué progresses, obtained in 2008 in fighting corruption.” According to him, the priority of corruption policies was talked about, and it will not have results in the next two years. “The reports presented by each institution (ECCCC, the General Prosecutor’s Office, The Ministry of Internal Affairs, etc.) are irrelevant. The presented figures, as the number of penal cases, of corruption-based sentences, do not describe the vastness of the phenomenon,” Mircea Esanu said. The General Secretary of the Anti-Corruption Alliance does not deny that, this year, certain progresses have been recorded. “But the reports lack serious cases of corruption – cases with the involvement of top dignitaries, ministers, judges, big fund embezzlements. We suspect that they exist,” Mircea Esanu specified. The Alliance is worried about the growing number of penal inquests before the parliamentary elections. “People think that anti-corruption fight is only in the electoral campaign, and this diminishes their trust in the state’s institutions,” Esanu explained. The 4th National Anti-Corruption Conference was entitled “Progresses and Perspectives in Curbing Corruption.” The conference was organized by the ECCCC, supported by the joint Project against corruption, extorting money and financing terrorism in Moldova (MOLICO), co-financed by the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the Swedish International Development Agency.