Some bills contain ‘open doors’ allowing functionaries to commit acts of corruption, CAPC

The ambiguous formulations, evasive terms and imprecise norms in some of the bills are like ‘open doors’ that allow civil servants to use them to commit acts of corruption. In a news conference on Wednesday, the head of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC) Galina Bostan said the so-called ‘small technical problems’ are insignificant at first sight, but can generate serious problems in the future, Info-Prim Neo reports. Galina Bostan spoke about the bills with amendments to the law on insurance and the law on mandatory civil liability insurance for damage caused by motor vehicles. “We do not think that these shortcomings were introduced on purpose, but we must close these doors that provide comfort to the functionaries who break the law,” said Galina Bostan. CAPC project coordinator Stela Pavlov said the informative note to the bills does not make reference to the EU legislation concerning civil liability insurance for damage caused by vehicles, though there are a series of related documents in the European Union. “The informative note says that the bills do not imply financial costs, but we consider that they will generate financial and budgetary losses if the tax for issuing a license, a certificate and a license copy and for insurance activity is paid not into the state budget, but into the budget of the National Financial Market Commission,” said Stela Pavlov. She stressed that the proposed amendments also contain a number of norms that contribute to the appearance of elements with powerful corruptibility risks, namely the widening of the discretion powers, aleatory setting of terms for the provision of services, exaggerated requirements for the exercise of certain rights, etc. “We suggest improving the given norms so that they contain most of the details needed to clearly regulate the resolution of conflicts of norms with the same legal power,” said Stela Pavlov. The Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption is a public association that aims to contribute to reducing corruption, studying the level of corruption in society and the state and improving transparency in the work of state and political institutions.  This expertise was realised by implementing the project “Coruption Proofing of Draft Legislative Acts – Phase V”, financed by Civil Rights Defenders and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.