The familiarization of public agents with the provisions of the legislation on anticorruption policies is insufficient, shows a poll of the quality of the anticorruption polices at the central public authorities conducted by Transparency International-Moldova.
In a news conference at IPN, Iana Spinei, Transparency International-Moldova expert, said that about 60% of the respondents of the poll said they took part in training seminars on different subjects related to integrity. However, an important part of them don’t know sufficient notions, such as “personal interest”, “close persons” and “consumed conflict of interest”.
“A large part of the respondents erroneously interpret the notion of “personal interest”, giving it a negative connotation and giving examples of abuse and deviations from the legislation. But “personal interest” is something normal for a functionary as any of the functionaries and also other persons are interested in having a stable and remunerated job. This can be interested in being promoted or in attending courses abroad, but it should be made sure that these persons do not go against their job duties,” stated Iana Spinei.
She said that 11 situations of undeclared conflicts of interest were identified at five central public authorities. In some of the situations, the conflicts of interest weren’t solved by the managers, while in others the applied solutions didn’t comply with the legislation.
2% of those surveyed said they had been in conflicts of interest during the past two years, while each tenth respondent said they know about conflicts of interest at their institution. These concern close persons, examination of affiliated firms or use of public property for personal purposes.
“I would like to give a good practice as an example, that of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, which, in its response to Transparency International, indicated that the entity has internal documents designed to prevent conflicts of interest, like the antifraud and anticorruption policy, the abstention declaration and the declaration of interests for members of specialty commissions,” stated Iana Spinei.
The National Integrity Authority, as a result of inspections, discovered 33 violations related to conflicts of interest and six concerning restrictions and incompatibilities at the central public authorities and subordinate entities. The penalties were in the form of singular fines and in two cases as deprivation of the right to hold a public post during a three-month period.
The project “Monitoring of anticorruption policies at central public authorities” was implemented with the aim of analyzing the application of anticorruption policies and of identifying eventual problems in the implementation process. There were examined 12 central public authorities and entities with an increased risk of corruption in 2018-2019, with the monitoring period covering May and June 2020.
