Transparency in the decision-making process in the parliamentary session that ended on July 31 was only 50% respected. Decisional transparency in Parliament was improved compared with the previous session, when 70% of the decisional transparency was affected, said expert of Promo-Lex Association Mihaela Duca-Anghelici. According to her, most of the times the government approves bills without waiting for objections from civil society, IPN reports.
Promo-Lex Assocation, which monitors the legislative body‘s work, said decisional transparency has improved in the recent past as the reports compiled by parliamentary commissions are now being published.
“As regards decisional transparency, we examine if all the documents related to the bills are published. The observance of the period of 10 workdays for public consultations is the second criteria. At least 10 workdays need to pass since registration up to voting in the first reading so that civil society could present recommendations. We assess the transparency of each plenary sitting. Compared with the previous session, we saw an improvement in the current session as commissions’ repots are published,” Mihaela Duca-Anghelici stated in the program “Public Space” on Radio Moldova station.
However, the monitoring reports of Promo-Lex show that the government continues to take decisions separately from civil society, the public consultations being ignored.
“During the previous session, we assessed the violation of decisional transparency at about 70%. The current session, about 50% of decisional transparency was affected. It is better, but we cannot yet say that decisional transparency is ensured. There are international agreements that are swiftly promoted. During four days of the registration, bills are given two readings. This is against the law. This haste is not clear. Why isn’t civil society given several days to submit eventual objections? If there are emergencies, these need to be explained,” said the expert of Promo-Lex.
According to political commentator Victor Ciobanu, a decisional transparency level of only 50% is extremely reduced for a pro-European government that promises maximum transparency in the decision-making process to the citizens.
“This is insufficient for a Parliament in which the majority declares that the government will be different and they will ensure full transparency. A lot of promises were made, but we see that this majority too swiftly learned the taste of power and this leads to the ignoring of procedures. Democracy means first of all observance of procedures. I see the attitude of the government, which considers it is omniscient and does not really take other opinions into account,” stated Victor Ciobanu.
On July 31, Parliament had its last sitting of the spring session. According to the monitoring report produced by Promo-Lex, in the absence of the opposition, 69% of the bills were adopted by the parliamentary majority as a resuts of debates that lasted for up to five minutes. Also, in the last sitting of the spring session, the electronic voting system didn’t work and transparency of the vote expressed by raising the hand was affected.
