The Law on the conflict of interests offers an erroneous interpretation of the notions of “conflict of interests” and “personal interest,” Transparency International-Moldova (TI-Moldova), an organization dealing with fighting corruption, ascertains. The experts of the organization presented a research entitled: “Approaching the conflict of interests: regulations and perceptions,” on Tuesday, February 25, at a news conference in the quarters of Info-Prim Neo News Agency. According to Ianina Spinei, an expert of TI-Moldova, the work is based on a sociological research made among employees of 7 public institutions, the results of which show insufficient awareness of the notion of a conflict of interests and the ways of its solving. According to respondents, there are cases of using public offices for personal purposes, cases of employing staff on the basis of relational and friendship affiliation, cases of undeserved promotion of employees, of intimidating the personnel on the reason of age and politics. The respondents showed specific situations of conflict of interests while making checks, supervising companies, employing and they remarked the subdivisions where there is an increased risk for the phenomenon to occur. Sometimes these subdivisions have even the task to curb the conflicts of interests. “The conflict of interest policy is not a dogma for sure. It may be revised, depending on the situation,” Ianina Spinei stated, as she was speaking about the recommendations made for the authorities in this regard. “It is very important that this policy was transparent, and the results of its applying, the results of examining the cases of conflict of interests and applying suitable solutions were open and public,” the expert said. By virtue of international standards, the work explains the notions of conflict of interests, close persons, personal interest, it describes the goal and key measures of the conflict of interest policy in the public service. TI-Moldova points to the need to deeply familiarize the employees with the law, to establish the risk zones for the appearance of conflicts of interests, to institute procedures of approaching them, to institute an efficient system of complaints on disobeying the conflict of interest policy. The Moldovan parliament endorsed the Law on conflict of interest and the Law on the Code of conduct of civil servants in 2008, and the draft law on the Main Ethics Commission is being worked out. According to TI-Moldova experts, besides the fact that the Law on the conflict of interests erroneously defines the notions of “conflict of interests” and “personal interest,” it also superficially approaches the categories of close persons, it doesn’t include all the duties and responsibilities of the public institutions on tackling the conflict of interests. According to Lilia Carasciuc, the executive director of TI-Moldova, the Law on the conflict of interests “doesn’t treat godchildren, god fathers, god parents as close relatives, but we are a country where the tradition of godfathers and godparents is widely spread.” The expert showed concern about the mechanism of applying this law, which she described as “undeveloped till the end.” “Everyone has the right to personal interests,” Lilia Carasciuc said, but she suggested that the civil servants must keep from making decisions in the situations in which their personal interests could affect these decisions.