State institutions do not efficiently promote anticorruption policies, TI-Moldova

The legislation on the prevention and combating of corruption in Moldova is largely nonfunctional as there is no efficient mechanism for implementing it and because the decision makers that negligently apply the anticorruption policies are not held accountable. This is the conclusion of a monitoring report on the anticorruption polices for 2011, compiled by Transparency International-Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference on Wednesday, TI-Moldova director Lilia Karaschuk said they assessed how four central public authorities implemented policies to prevent corruption. These are: the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family, the Ministry of Education, and the State Main Tax Inspectorate. Most of the illegalities were identified at the Ministry of Education. The results of the monitoring showed that the four institutions either did not designate a person responsible for the prevention of corruption or named a person whose post is lower than those of deputy minister or deputy director. The report also says that the hotline of the Ministry of Labor is ‘dead’, while the messages at the ICT Ministry’s hotline must be left on the answerphone. The hotlines of the other two institutions are rather efficient. As to the declaration of incomes and property, the report says that the Ministry of Education provided no information, the other two ministries furnished incomplete information and only the State Inspectorate presented complete information. As regards the declaration of personal interests and the conflicts of interest, the Ministry of Education avoided answering, the Ministry of Labor invoked that the legislation is not implemented and did not provide explanations, while the State Inspectorate and the ICT Ministry said they did not have a model of a declaration of interests. The Ministry of Education avoiding giving an answer as regards the procedure for recruiting personnel, the other two ministries gave partial answers and only the State Inspectorate answered all the questions. In the news conference, the head of the CCCEC’s Criminological Analytical and Prevention Division Victor Colin said the monitoring group established that servants hold shares or posts in joint stock companies. “We determined that public servants own shares in limited liability companies, receive salaries in these companies and there are situations of conflicts of interest. This generates corruption,” he stated. The activities were carried out within a project to monitor the implementation of the national corruption prevention and combating strategy that is financed by Soros-Moldova Foundation and the Partnership for Transparency Fund.