Vasile Tarlev: Corruption paved the way for establishing current authoritarian regime in Moldova. Info-Prim Neo poll

{Info-Prim Neo News Agency is conducting an opinion poll among leaders of the parties running in elections. The subject of the poll is corruption in Moldova and solutions for fighting it. All the participants were asked two similar questions. This time, the answers are given by Vasile Tarlev, president of the Centrist Union of Moldova (UCM).} [ - What does the party that you represent think about corruption in Moldova?] - I personally, alongside the administration and members of the Centrist Union of Moldova, consider that corruption is nowadays one of the major problems in Moldova and one of the greatest damagers to the country’s future. This fact is confirmed by foreign experts, who think that corruption in Moldova is fueled by economic, political, juridical, social and moral factors. In Moldova’s case, we can mention three categories of non-economic factors that contribute to thriving corruption. The first category includes the factors that help obtain illegal profits, first of all the imperfect legislation that allows the bureaucrats to interpret the legislation as they want and to establish their own rules. It also includes the influence exerted by the bureaucratic elite on the political elite, which is easily noticed in Moldova’s customs system and in the activity of the Ministry of Information Development. In this connection, we must mention the authoritarian political control established over the judiciary and the Center for Combating Corruption and Economic Crime, which makes corruption a centralized phenomenon. The second category of factors that cause corruption in Moldova, according to the UCM, is the political and social apathy of the civil society and the limitation of the press’ possibilities of covering decision making, especially at the intermediary bureaucratic level. Regretfully, there is no efficient mechanism for controlling and equilibrating the excessive political power of some of the central administrative institutions (as the Presidential Office for example), which generates corruption and abuse of power. In this case, a very important role is played by the international influence that can prevent the corruption of functionaries that manage the foreign financial assistance, as it happens regularly in Moldova. The third category of factors includes the low level of proficiency in managing businesses, which directly encourages corruption. Unlike the Western developed countries, Moldova does not have a tradition for solving economic disputes in a civilized way and laws that would ensure the fulfillment of the contractual obligations. Only the personal relations and the post held in the social hierarchy count in Moldova. Corruption is also generated by the low salaries in state institutions. Unusually, the state functionaries turn into predators towards the ordinary citizens, especially businesspersons. We must not forget about the nepotism relations used when recruiting and promoting bureaucrats in political institutions. We consider that it was corruption that paved the way for establishing the current authoritarian regime in Moldova. In our opinion, the public institutions in Moldova are underdeveloped. There are several senior elites and a great discrepancy between incomes. Therefore, there are possibilities of exercising pressure or authority. The poor people and the honest persons that are unable or do not want to engage in this game are the most disadvantaged in this situation. These groups of people always go behind those that can influence decision making in their favor. Most of the times, we can witness cases when the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the law are observed only when bribe is offered. In Moldova, there are many such examples. Some of the companies cannot obtain the documents needed to start work though they fulfilled all the legal requirements. At the same time, other companies that did not fulfill the requirements obtain the necessary documents the day when the application is filed. The same happens when there are carried out technical and financial inspections. Some of the companies have not been inspected for many years, while others are checked several times a year, without providing explanations. [ - What will the UCM do to combat corruption if it comes to power?] When formulating the plan of measures aimed at combating corruption that the Centrist Union of Moldova intends to implement if it comes to power, we used the formula worked out in the West by economist Robert Klitgaard, which is successfully employed in a number of developed countries: “corruption = monopoly+ power+ responsibility”. In order to reduce the effect of the monopoly, the UCM, when in power, will refrain from adopting laws that would give compete control to some of the institutions on certain sectors of the economy and society. If the UCM becomes a ruling party, it will limit the bureaucratic power, first of all by simplifying the legal framework that regulates the activities of certain agents and public institutions. We consider that the responsibility is a combination of education and motivation. The motivation can be achieved by financial ways, by raising salaries of civil servants so that they correspond to their responsibilities and efforts made. However, if there are no other interventions, the costs of eradicating corruption by increasing pays would be larger than the negative economic effects of corruption. That’s why prudent steps must be taken in this direction. Education implies efforts on the part of the education institutions and the family. Unfortunately, the education programs in Moldova now aim to educate a selfish person. In order to change this situation, the influence of the family in the society must be increased. As history shows, the epochs of prosperity and democracy always coincide with the period of purity and solidarity of the family life. And vice versa, the moral degradation of the family is always accompanied by corruption and degradation of the social life. The Christian faith was always at the basis of the Moldovan family, which stimulated the development of our national values. Our entire culture is built on this foundation. The degradation appeared when diggings stated to be carried out under the foundation in order to destroy it. This process started in the Soviet period and continues nowadays by introducing educational standards and norms with the aim of destroying our faith and us as a nation together with it. Whether we like it or not, but only the strengthening of the real faith and the return of God in our families can bring us victory in the fight against this terrible sin and scourge - corruption. In general, corruption exists in practically every state. The question here is: do we want to eradicate it and what methods should we use? We want to do it and know how to do it. According to the Anticorruption Plan of the Centrist Union of Moldova, together with other parties, there will be taken the following measures: 1. There will be ensured transparency, within reasonable limits, of the commercial transactions, financial flows and flows of goods. 2. There will be established an efficient control over the broadcast of economic information in order to prevent sales of it; 3. There will be adopted a new law on corruption combating that will provide for the implementation of a number of efficient economic, penal, administrative, civil, disciplinary and other measures. 4. Decision making will be improved, depending of the value of the decisions – up to the governmental or inter-ministerial level. 5. The strict observance of the principle of individual responsibility for implementing decisions will be ensured. 6. There will be introduced the obligatory procedure for examining all the normative documents and laws by highly-qualified independent experts: lawyers, economists, managers and other professionals. 7. There will be ensured the strict observance of the ‘one-stop office’ method in order to reduce to the minimum the number of bureaucratic institutions, diminishing thus the possibility of corrupting functionaries. 8. The stipulations of the law on income statements for all the types of incomes earned by the functionaries and their families will be clarified and this law will be non-conditionally implemented. 9. Strict restrictions will be imposed on the persons that worked for state institutions and apply for posts in commercial organizations. 10. The role of the law enforcement bodies in discovering and combating bribery and other acts of corrupting will be increased. Therefore, the financing for these institutions will be raised, the personnel will be consolidated, the technical and operational bases will be optimized. 11. There will be created only one body for combating economic crime that will substitute the multiple ministries and departments that now pursue isolated and inefficient policies. 12. There will be ensured optimal interaction between the law enforcement bodies of Moldova and the Interpol and other international institutions that fight against corruption, money laundering and other economic crimes. 13. All the possible measures will be taken to discover, confiscate and recover the financial resources and other property stolen from the state. 14. There will be formulated and implemented a program to improve the training of students in law institutions and introduced mechanisms for accumulating experience in the given area – for discovering and investigation economic crime and corruption.