Civil society should concentrate more its attention on the promises made by politicians, considers Transparency International Moldova executive director Lilia Carashchuk. She argued her position in IPN’s public debate “How to assess the promise made by a politician”.

“The candidate for President promises that a road will be built in the village. But how does he intend to build it? And this question should be definitely put to him! If he intends to do this by influencing the executive’s decisions (as road building is within the Government’s remit), this smells of corruption already,” stated Lilia Carashchuk.

She is convinced that the responsibility of the power is absent in Moldova. “Transparency is the main element of responsibility. Then civil society can observe and assess. Among other elements are the access to information and the periodical repots. But any report compares the plan with the facts. You cannot renounce the initial plan and say that it is more suitable for you this way,” noted the executive director of Transparency International Moldova.

She also said that transparency should result in accomplishments. “For example, the work done by the Court of Auditors is assessed by Parliament. And what? Has anyone ever seen criminal cases started over the facts elucidated by the Court of Auditors? But it permanently reports cases of appropriation of state property, huge losses of public funds, serious violations. Have you seen a reaction that produced a result?” asked the expert.

She called the lack of decisions and appropriate punishments for the committed violations transparency for the sake of transparency. “This way, everything turns into a formality. And we should not forget that transparently is a necessary, but insufficient condition if the masses are not involved,” concludes Lilia Carashchuk.

The debate “How to assess the promise made by a politician” was organized as part of the mini-series “We and the President: who elects who and who represents who?” that forms part of the project “Developing political culture through public debates”. IPN News Agency stages the public debates with the assistance of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.