TI-Moldova sees no use in working out new National Anticorruption Strategy

Transparency International – Moldova (TI-Moldova) thinks that the development of a new national anticorruption strategy, as provided by the draft of the Action Plan for Implementation of the National Strategy for Preventing and Countering Corruption for 2009, is useless, Info-Prim Neo reports. TI-Moldova expert, Efim Obreja, believes that the strategy in force hasn’t lost its actuality and could represent the basis of the anticorruption activities in Moldova. Point No. 1.33 of the presented draft provides for the completion of the Criminal Code with the institution of national and international arbiters as subjects to criminal liability for corruption acts. The expert proposes to modify this action and provide the completion of the criminal code with norms which would regulate the criminal liability of foreign public agents and the officials of international public organisations for committing corruption acts. The expert also proposes to complete the draft with another measure: development and adoption of amendments to the Law on the conflict of interests. According to him this action will help regulate the correct notions of “conflict of interest” and “personal interest” which constitute the basis of this law, as well as define the notion of “close persons” so that it includes connexions, godparents, godchildren in order to easily identify, process and solve conflicts of interests related to connections with this categories of persons (related to the phenomenon of nepotism which is so widely spread in Moldova). The amendments will be guided by the principle of “promoting intolerance towards the conflict of interests”, which provides for the accountability of public institutions for their actions on the correct processing and resolution of conflicts of interests. Another proposal is to establish the competence of the Principal Ethics Commission to collect and examine the declarations of personal interests as well as solve conflicts of interests only in cases of certain categories of officials (heads of public institutions, persons accused via declarations). The expert also proposes “The development and adoption of the Law on the amendment of the Public Servant’s Code of Conduct” in order for it to provide special regulations on the Principal Ethics Commission as an independent supervising body, as well as the ethics commissions operating within public institutions. Another amendment would establish the maximum cost of a gift that can be received by a public servant, in compliance with the international recommendations and standards. The expert thinks that it is also important to work out and adopt amendments to the Law on Preventing and Countering Corruption in order to: regulate by law the incrimination and the classification of corruption acts in compliance with the UN Convention against Corruption; regulate the corruption in the private sector; introduce some measures for preventing corruption; provide for legal immunity or privileges in compliance with the international norms; amend the divisions of the law concerning public procurement and management of public finances, prevention of money laundering, requirements for the candidates to an elected public office, ensuring transparency of the financing of political parties and electoral campaigns, liability for corruption acts, protection of witnesses, experts and persons who report acts of corruption, independence and impartiality of the criminal investigation bodies etc. At the same time, Efim Obreja proposes to complete the draft with the measure of amending the Law on political parties so that it is possible to: differentiate clearly the financing of political parties from that of electoral campaigns and political activities of the elected representatives; regulate donations (especially the limits of donations) in compliance with the principles of donations provided in the Recommendations of the Council of Europe; exclude the interdiction of financing political parties by the citizens of the Republic of Moldova who are abroad; ensure transparency of parties’ financing and others. The expert believes that the institutions which could be responsible for the implementation of these measures are the Ministry of Justice and the Centre for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption.