More cases of hindering access to official information were recorded in the first quarter of this year, including during the parliamentary elections, says the quarterly report (January – March 2009) prepared by Acces-Info Center in concert with a group of experts representing the civil society and the mass media, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the report authors, the institutional management should be considerably improved so as to ensure the active informing of the public. The active dialogue with the citizens should be perpetuated and the people should be involved in decision making. At a meeting of the group of experts on Monday, [Sean Roberts, senior program manager at the Academy for Educational Development,] said that the access to information is very important in the fight against corruption. “The access to information enables the public to get involved in this activity and is an element that could contribute to building a democratic state. Constant activities are needed in order to ensure access to information,” said Sean Roberts. “Though the project was completed (the Threshold Country Program – e.n.), the civil society should continue assessing the access to information in the economic, social, political and other spheres.” [Cornelia Cozonac, director of the Journalistic Investigations Center,] has told Info-Prim Neo that the access to information remains a very good instrument for fighting corruption. “Following the destabilization of the situation, we realized that our work was not good enough to change things. Neither the journalists, not the ordinary people have access to information about the events that happened. But they have the right to know how the government and its institutions work and how the public money is managed,” Cornelia Cozonac said. “In the turmoil following the election campaign, everything becomes very uncertain. A lot of irregularities were committed in a rather short period of time. Though measures were taken during the implementation of the Threshold Country Program and laws were adopted, the police are now unable to provide the lists of the arrested persons and explain why they were arrested,” said Mircea Esanu, secretary of the Anticorruption Alliance.] [Eugeniu Rabca, member of the group of experts of Acces-Info], said that until the new Parliament of Moldova adopts an official position, we will not be able to speak about a real fight against corruption. “The law on the state secret that took effect recently says that the amounts of money that will be used to repair the buildings devastated on April 7 can be considered state secret. Can we speak about prevention of corruption in this case?” Rabca asked. In the same connection, [Vasile Spinei, director of the Center for Promotion of Freedom of Expression Acces-Info], said that steps were taken but the situation did not change much. When there is chaos in the country, corruption thrives. Basing on a scale of 0 to 5 points, the group of experts assessed the level of access to information in Moldova at 2.2 points. In the fourth quarter of last year, the index was 2.4 points (in the third quarter - 2.36 points, in the second quarter - 2.12 points, while in the first quarter - 2.09 points). The project forms part of the Strengthening Civil Society Monitoring Capacity in Moldova Program is implemented by the Academy for Educational Development financed by the U.S. Government through the Millennium Challenge Corporation and managed by the United State Agency for International Development as part of the Threshold Country Program for Moldova.