Fighting corruption inefficient without civil society: Anti-Corruption Alliance

The mentality of citizens should be changed in order to fight corruption, since the phenomenon is not maintained by the ones accepting unofficial payments, but also by the ones offering those payments, finds the Anti-Corruption Alliance in its second report monitoring the implementation of the Country Threshold Program (CTP) of the US Millennium Challenge Corporation. The report launched on July 31 in Chisinau contains the results of the monitoring from 1 April 2008 through 30 June, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Anti-Corruption Alliance joins 5 Moldovan NGOs to monitor the implementation of the CTP. The monitors are concerned with the drop of the institutional openness index, although the average mark obtained by the monitored institutions is 3.9 points out of 5. It criticizes the Government for lacking political will in developing authentic legislation regarding the Civil Council of the Economic Crimes and Corruption Combating Center (ECCCC), the report points out. An “important element” remarked by Transparency International Moldova is that their attempt to look at the $24-million budget for fighting corruption in Moldova was rejected, saying the information does not have a public character. The Alliance's secretary, Mircea Esanu, has shirked from providing a clear answer to the question: what is the state of things in terms of corruption? He has said the effects of the monitoring and of the actions of the monitored institutions will be visible in half a year, in the best case. The Moldovan authorities' fighting corruption is listed among regresses in the 11th issue of “Euromonitor”, published by the ADEPT Association for Participating Democracy and of the Expert-Grup Analytical Center. ADEPT's executive, Igor Botan, told a news conference on Thursday “the Government's actions, this year, in terms of fighting corruption are rather waves than actions.” Euromonitor's authors have found negative trends in implementing the law on human rights, in the independence of judiciary, in the media's situation and in the reform of the local administration. As progresses they mention the dynamic dialog with the European Union and the legal reform concerning the public health insurance.