The state failed in a series of measures to fight corruption

The Republic of Moldova did not carry out a series of measures of major importance to prevent corruption, states Transparency International – Moldova (TIM), fact based on the results of the Report presented by the Center for Fighting Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCCEC) regarding the implementing the National Strategy for fighting corruption in 2005. Among the objectives that were missed, TIM mentions: the adoption of the Law on Conflict of Interests and the Law on Financing Political Parties; creation of an Ethics Committee; elaboration and adoption of the Ethical Code of the public functionary and oversee the code’s implementation; amending the Law on Fighting Money Laundry and the mechanism of declaring the income by public functionaries. Although the penal responsibility for bribing the electors during the electoral campaign was instituted, TIM declares the phenomenon of electoral corruption is more serious than a simple bribery, fact that creates opportunities for continuing the spread of corruption in this area. Besides, TIM mentions that over 600 corruption offences committed by high officials were discovered and only one person was sentenced. TIM experts consider that efficiently preventing and fighting the corruption phenomenon in Moldova is possible only in the case of a tight collaboration between the state bodies and civil society. The public institutions must organize their activities as transparent as possible, inclusively to guarantee the free access to public information, to allow the civil society to participate in the decision-taking process, to prove the ability to punish the corrupt persons. The support of the civil society could consist in making comments upon the draft bills, informing the specialized authorities about certain corruption cases, offering juridical assistance to persons that confront with the corruption phenomenon, overseeing the implementation of the legislation regarding the corruption preventing and fighting and the activity of the public institutions, promoting a campaign for making the society acknowledge the dangers of corruption, diminishing the tolerance towards corruption. TIM also mentions several achievements of the Sate in fighting corruption, inclusively increasing the Corruption Acknowledge Index from 2, 3 to 2,9 points, improving the businessmen opinion regarding the contribution of the state in business, decreasing the medium number of official and unofficial contacts of the businessmen with the state bodies.