TCP has a positive impact on prevention and combating of corruption in legal system, report

The Threshold Country Program (TCP) has a positive impact on the prevention and combating of corruption in the legal system. The Supreme Council of Magistrates and the Ministry of Justice have been entrusted with the task of carrying out the anticorruption actions stipulated in the Program. Most of them have been fulfilled, says the last report on the implementation of the TCP presented by the Anticorruption Alliance on February 10, Info-Prim Neo reports. The report includes the monitoring results for the last quarter of 2008 and is the last report launched by the civil society. “Most of the actions provided in the TCP have been fulfilled. The Supreme Council of Magistrates and the Ministry of Justice made an enormous effort and showed professional will in implementing these actions and will to carry out essential reforms in the legal system,” said Valeriu Zubco, the president of “EX LEGE” Agency for Supporting Judicial Education and Law Bodies, a nongovernmental organization that monitored the first cheaper of the TCP – improving the capacity of the judiciary to prevent and combat corruption. The agency monitored 30 legal institutions. Valeriu Zubco mentioned the changes made in the pilot institutions, namely the courts in Rezina, Ungheni, Comrat and the Chisinau Court of Appeals. “The modernization works in the three courts of first level have been already completed and the other courts are envious of the implemented changes, for example at the Comrat Court, which was earlier in a deplorable condition,” Valeriu Zubco said. Among other successes mentioned was the implementation of the Automated Case Distribution System, which already works in two courts. Also, the Ministry of Justice started to modify the penal and civil procedure codes as regards the audio and vide recording of hearings. The pilot institutions already do this. The Supreme Court of Justice and the court of appeals now have websites that the people can use to find out about the examined cases, the date and hour of the hearings and the court decisions. The ECHR decisions against Moldova are published on the website of the Supreme Court of Justice. At the same time, “EX LEGE” ascertained that a part of the actions have not been fully carried out and the term already expired. Among these are the creation of the website of the courts, the provision of the pilot institutions with registration equipment and software for transcription, etc. The court decisions are published only partially on the websites of the courts of appeals. Though many of the courts have computers, many judges continue to write judgments with the pen. The Government has not yet approved the strategy for adequately financing the courts so as to ensure the financial independence of the legal system, while the Parliament delays introducing amendments to the procedure codes. By a survey, “EX LEGE” established that in some of the courts the cases are distributed as the president or vice president wants, not randomly. The agency also ascertained that the low salaries are one of the major factors that generate corruption in the legal system. 96% of the questioned judges mentioned this cause. 39.7% of the judges said that corruption results from the judges’ lack of integrity and resistance. 19.2% invoked the intervention of politics in the daily activity of judges, while 11.9% - the systemic corruption when appointing judges. “Both the positive and negative results show that there is a lot of work to do to create a legal system of which we could be proud,” the president of “EX LEGE” said. According to him, the civil society should continue monitoring the legal system because the reform of the judiciary is not yet over. By the TCP, the Government of Moldova committed itself to continuing reducing corruption in five areas with the assistance of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). The Anticorruption Alliance is carrying out the monitoring as part of the Strengthening Civil Society Monitoring Capacity in Moldova Program implemented by the Academy for Educational Development. The program is financed by the MCC and managed by the United States Agency for International Development through the TCP.