The amendment of the law on the National Anticorruption Center (NAC) is not approved of by representatives of civil society. According to experts of the Legal Resources Center, the appointment of the NAC director by Parliament, at the suggestion of 20 MPs does nothing but fuel suspicions about the politicization of this institution. According to reports, the swiftness with which the Party of Action and Solidarity amends the legislation for appointing other persons to posts does not inspire confidence in irreversible changes, IPN reports.
The exclusion of the obligation to stage a public contest for selecting the candidate for NAC director can be perceived as an attempt by the government to bring this institution under control, say jurists.
“The law will have effects in time and in four years will open up the way for the other governments to do the same. This way, NAC will never get rid of political control. In 2009-2014, the opponents of those who had NAC at their beck and call were visited by persons in balaclavas. I read the informative note to this law and it is not convincing as the failure of the previous contests does not justify the fact that the new director should be elected by politicians. If there was a public contest with high transparency standards, this would offer increased credibility. By this law, we missed the chance to have an independent and autonomous institution,” expert of the Legal Resource Center Ilie Chirtoacă stated in the talk show “Emphasis on Today” on TVR Moldova channel.
Political commentator Ion Tăbârță said the PAS’ initiatives to assess the activity of the prosecutor genera, the NAC director, heads of institutions that are under parliamentary control show that the government tries to deliver results to the public as swiftly as possible.
“The current government set the goal of creating functional state institutions, but the problem of rapid changes made by PAS is that these changes seem contextual, for a short period of time. We need changes that bill be irreversible. If they act contextually now, when the political power is changed, this will also act contextually. They acted contextually earlier too and where did we get to? To an oligarchic regime in the Republic of Moldova,” stated Ion Tăbârță.
The law on NAC was modified by the PAS majority so that the candidate for director of the institution is no longer chosen at a public contest, but is named by Parliament, at the suggestion of at least 20 MPs. According to the PAS government, the work of the current NAC head Ruslan Flocea will be assessed by the expert parliamentary commission. If the commission describes the work as unsatisfactory, the NAC chief will be dismissed.
