World Bank experts said the time for strategies and planning of the justice sector reform actions expired in the case of the Republic of Moldova and it is now time to generate real changes that would be felt by the citizens, the business community and players of the justice system. This is the finding of a study that was presented in a news conference on September 27, IPN reports.
Jurist of the World Bank Office in Moldova Eva Melis said 56% of the citizens said they either didn’t see changes or ascertained a deterioration of things as a result of the announced reform. One in five citizens consider there is no equity and impartiality in the courts of law, as do 68% of the interviewed business entities. Also, half of the respondent lawyers confirmed the citizens’ concerns.
Of the surveyed judges, three thirds said they do not feel safe in the positions they occupy, while of the questioned prosecutors – more than half. Eva Melis said both of the groups consider their integrity is exposed to a risk owing to the reorganization of the system. A large number of judges and prosecutors said they know about the justice sector reform and are involved in doing this, but few of them consider the actions under implementation are successful.
According to Amit Mukherjee, expert of the World Bank Office in Moldova, the study shows the public has a very low level of confidence in the judiciary system. Both the citizens and the economic entities consider that if they go to court, it is highly improbable that they will enjoy fair justice. Only the reorganization of the notarial system was positively assessed by the population.
As to the number of judges, Amit Mukherjee said there are 25 judges per 100,000 people in the EU member states, while in Moldova the ratio is of 11 to 100,000. As regards the number of prosecutors, the situation is diametrically opposed. A European country has ten prosecutors on average, while Moldova has 20 prosecutors per 100,000 people. The costs for justice in the EU represent 0.7% of the GDP, while in Moldova – 1.1%.
“It’s time for action, for implementation . Moldova has a rich history of planning and formulation of strategies during many years. A lot of money was spent on these activities, but polls show so convincingly that the citizens and the business community didn’t see real changes at the local level,” stated Amit Mukherjee.
The World Bank study was carried out based on the institutional analysis of the justice sector reform, public costs in the sector and surveys of users of courts of law in 2017.
