Ion Tăbârță, political expert, Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (IDIS) „Viitorul”
Recently, the Council of Europe and the European Union have shared the proposals for future cooperation priorities in the six Eastern Partnership countries submitted through a specially-created ‘Suggestion Box’.
The ideas shared via the ‘Suggestion Box’ came from a wide range of participants, including public officials, members of parliament and of Non-Governmental Organisations, or individuals. The main areas include fighting economic crime – tackling corruption within the judiciary, reinforcing the capacity of anti-corruption bodies, and raising awareness of the anti-corruption policies and actions.
StrategEast has interviewed major experts from EaP countries. Here are the answers from an expert from Moldova.
Do you think the EU can bring tangible results in fighting corruption in your country?
Since the negotiation of the Association Agreement with the European Union, signed on June 27, 2014, the Republic of Moldova has made an effort to fight the phenomenon of corruption in society. In the text of the Association Agreement there are several commitments from the Republic of Moldova in combating corruption, several articles referring to this negative social phenomenon: art.2, art.4, art.16, art.50, art.271 art. 422, art.424-426. However, the fight against corruption, along with the reform of the judiciary system, is one of the great delays of the Republic of Moldova in implementing the Association Agreement. The regular reports made by the European institutions, which assess the degree of achievement of the Association Agreement by the government in Chisinau, highlight that corruption remains one of the worst phenomena facing Moldovan society. This is despite the considerable efforts made by the EU to help the Republic of Moldova in combating this social scourge.
The European Union, with other international organizations, has financially and expertly assisted the institutional reform of the Republic of Moldova in streamlining the fight against corruption. Since 2009, pro-European governments in Chisinau have received considerable support from EU for institutional reforms.
In the institutional anti-corruption design, the National Anticorruption Center (NAC) investigates large-scale corruption cases. NAC was created by the entry into force in 2012 of the Law on the reform of the Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCECC) by transforming it into the National Anticorruption Center. The creation of the new Anti-Corruption Agency, with exclusive attributions for preventing and counteracting acts of corruption, was a condition of the European Union for the Republic of Moldova during the negotiation of the liberalized visa regime.
Also with the support of the EU and development partners, the General Prosecutor’s Office (GPO) was reformed by adopting in 2016 the new Law on the Prosecutor’s Office and the Law on specialized prosecutor’s offices. The essence of the prosecutor’s office reform was the creation of two specialized prosecutor’s offices – the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Causes – which must deal with resonance cases and major corruption.
Another condition of the European Union in the implementation of the Association Agreement was the creation of an institution for integrity. In the first stage, through a law adopted in 2011, the National Integrity Commission was created, which after the adoption in 2016 of the new package of laws on integrity (containing three laws), was reorganized into the National Integrity Authority. This institution focuses on investigating officials’ conflicts of interest and verifying their official statements.
The current anti-corruption institutional architecture in the Republic of Moldova, consisting of the National Anticorruption Center, the two specialized institutions of the General Prosecutor’s Office and the National Integrity Authority, was created largely due to the commitments made by our state in the European integration process. However, this institutional structure has not yet been able to function effectively in the fight against corruption, with tangible results due, in large part, to political impediments. Another important aspect of the functioning of institutions to combat corruption, to produce results is that reforming them must go abreast with judicial reform, which is currently lagging behind again due to political factors, but also because of interior resistance of the judiciary system to reform.
What EU programs and actions can help to tackle corruption?
The EU has supported the Republic of Moldova with numerous programs and projects aimed at reducing the phenomenon of corruption in Moldovan society. So far, they have not reached their intended goal, as corruption has greatly affected the quality of life of the population and the efficiency of the functioning of state institutions. Sociological investigations show that corruption is considered stable by most of the population among the three main problems (along with poverty and unemployment) that society faces. The high level of perception of corruption and its impact on society is also confirmed by the results of the international ranking on the Corruption Perception Index, according to which the Republic of Moldova ranks second in the global ranking (115th place out of 180 countries in 2020) and among the most problematic in Europe (only Ukraine and Russia are ranked below).
Sociological studies also help us estimate the public’s perception of the efficiency of actions in order to succeed in combating the phenomenon of corruption. According to the respondents, in order to reduce the level of corruption in the Republic of Moldova, it is necessary to apply both legal measures (tightening sanctions for people who give and take bribes; adoption of better anti-corruption laws; ensuring more rigorous control in institutions state etc.), as well as activities aimed at changing the mentality, the attitude of the population towards corruption, better informing the citizens about the possibilities of addressing the investigation of corruption cases etc.
The Republic of Moldova has adopted, with the help of the EU and other development partners, the legislative framework through which the reform of anti-corruption institutions has been carried out. These institutions need to start working efficiently. At the same time, there is a need to develop and implement a concrete and effective mechanism of measures to contribute to the awareness of the population of the full extent of harm that corruption has on their standard of living. Some of these measures have already been included in educational programs, aimed at forming a moral and legal culture of citizens, but these programs need to be strengthened to install in the population a sense of adversity towards corruption.
At the level of the whole society, a special role in the implementation of such programs belongs to the media institutions, which regularly broadcast materials related to the new legislation, related to the prevention and fight against corruption, constantly elucidate corruption cases and measures taken. In the situation when the state anti-corruption institutions are less efficient in their activity, namely independent media (such as The Guard Newspaper, TV8, Portal Anticorruption.md etc.), financially supported by donor institutions from EU states, but also USA, they are the ones who bring the cases of corruption to the attention of the population through its investigations.
In order to reduce the level of corruption and its impact on society, the active involvement of civil society is also appropriate. The EU has consistently supported non-governmental organizations, as credible partners in dialogue, and in order to increase the implementation of various anti-corruption programs, which through their projects have the opportunity to contribute substantially to the formation of societal standards aimed at eradicating corruption in the country.
Last but not least, the EU should support non-corrupt political actors in the Republic of Moldova, who, on the contrary, have set themselves the leitmotif of their political activity, namely the fight against corruption. After the embezzlement in November 2014 of the financial banking system with about one billion dollars (known in the usual language as “theft of a billion”), starting with 2016, there was a process of resetting the right-wing political ladder. As a result, instead of the former pro-European right-wing parties, which discredited themselves during the 2009-2015 rule, other right-wing parties emerged, which in addition to the pro-European geopolitical orientation, focused their political activity on cleaning up the institutions’ state of corrupt elements. Those parties won a resounding victory on November 15, 2020, when the pro-European candidate, Maia Sandu, managed to defeat the former president, Igor Dodon, one of the exponential representatives of the oligarchic regime in the Republic of Moldova.
Although the Republic of Moldova has not yet achieved remarkable success in the fight against corruption, the institutional ground has already been prepared for it, and a wave of expectations has been created among the population regarding the fight against corruption in society and in state institutions. This requires the involvement of all actors in society who could determine the state to be actively involved in the fight against corruption.
