NGOs welcome National Anticorruption Pact

Nongovernmental organizations have welcomed the National Anticorruption Pact proposed by the Actiunea Europeana Movement (MAE) that has so far been signed by another four political organizations. They say yet that more public discussions on the pact should be held, Info-Prim Neo reports. This accord must be much more powerful, Transparency International director Lilia Carasciuc said during the debate meeting themed “Partnership for Moldova. Anticorruption Solutions for Alleviating Poverty” on March 12. Mircea Esanu, the secretary of the Anticorruption Alliance that is composed of about 30 NGOs, considers that corruption in Moldova must be regarded as a dysfunction of the government institutions. “For the time being, neither the Prosecutor’s Office nor the Center for Combating Corruption and Economic Crime or the Ministry of Internal Affairs managed to discover large-scale corruption cases. This makes us think that certain obstacles are placed or there is no political will,” Esanu said. “The fight against corruption should start with the restructuring of the institutions responsible for corruption combating,” Esanu added. According to him, the cases of large-scale corruption should be investigated by a separate group of prosecutors. Emphasis should be laid on the investigation of privatization cases during the last 4-5 years “because there is fresh information about them”. Alexandru Gorgan, who had been Deputy Minister of Defense during 1992-1995, thinks that corruption must be combated first of all in order to attract investments from abroad. For the purpose, the persons that held important positions and cannot prove how they earned the money should be held accountable. The National Anticorruption Pact was proposed for signing to political parties, except the Communist Party (PCRM), the Christian Democratic People’s Party (PPCD), the Social-Democratic Party (PSD) and the Centrist Union (UCM). “The PCRM is corrupt in essence, while the other parties can be still saved from the ‘corruption virus’. The only solution in the case of the Communists and their acolytes, the PPCD, PSD and UCM, is the isolation and immediate removal from power,” the MAE leader Anatol Petrencu told a news conference earlier. Four political parties – the Democratic Party (PDM), the Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN), the Republican Party (PRM) and the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM) – have joined the National Anticorruption Pact proposed by the MAE. It contains 15 commitments. The first is the restructuring of the anticorruption institutions and the formation of a national anticorruption division. The MAE also wants to ensure by law the transparency of the property of dignitaries and of the investigations of the privatization cases during the last 18 years. According to the MAE, Moldova’s budget loses 1.5 billion dollars a year as a result of missing of grants and loans with low rates of interest, putting of unofficial taxes and other illegalities.