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Last Published: 11/2/2017

While Moldova is taking steps to adopt European and international standards to combat corruption and organized crime, corruption remains a major problem. The wider Moldovan society also has a general perception of prevalent corruption among high level officials.

The government developed and enacted a series of laws designed to address legislative gaps such as the Law on Preventing and Combating Corruption, the Law on Conflict of Interests and the Law on the Code of Conduct for Public Servants. The Criminal Code criminalizes public corruption through two specific statutes – passive and active corruption. These statutes apply only to corruption actions and bribery committed by public officials. In 2016 Moldova started the reform of the prosecution system and created a specialized prosecution agency – The Anticorruption Prosecution Office. However, the new prosecution agency is yet to prove its full effectiveness in combating corruption, including in a non-discriminatory manner.

In 2016, parliament passed in the first reading the Law on the National Integrity Authority and the Law on Disclosure of Assets and Conflict of Interest by public officials. According to the first draft law, the National Integrity Center is to replace the National Integrity Commission. The new agency will be staffed with 30 integrity inspectors and have the power to apply fines on delinquent officials. The director and deputy director would be hired in a competitive process. The second draft law provides for clearer procedures and mechanisms for disclosing assets, properties, and conflicts of interest by Moldovan public officials.

A 2012 law reorganized the Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCECC) into the National Anticorruption Center (NAC). The NAC focuses solely on investigating public corruption and bribery crimes, and is subordinated to the parliament (CCECC was under the executive branch). Moldovan judges, who had previously enjoyed full immunity from investigation, can now be prosecuted for crimes of corruption without a prior sanction from their highest self-governing body, the Superior Council of Magistrates, which nevertheless keeps its powers to approve any search or arrest warrant against a judge.

In 2016, legislative initiatives launched by the Supreme Court of Justice in the anticorruption area stalled due to the opposition by Moldovan civil society due to concerns that the creation of anti-corruption courts raised the risk of corruption as there would be no oversight body.

Moldova's Criminal Code includes articles on public and private sector corruption, combating economic crimes, criminal responsibility of public officials, active and passive corruption and trade of influence which put the legislation more in line with international, anti-bribery standards by criminalizing the act of promising, offering or giving a bribe to a public official. Anti-corruption laws extend culpability to family members; however due to the presumption of legally acquired assets provided for by the Moldovan Constitution, the effective presumption is that of a legal acquirement. The statute of illicit enrichment that was introduced in 2013 is yet to be used effectively by law enforcement in cases of public officials.

Moldovan laws require private companies to establish internal codes of conduct that prohibit corruption and corrupt behavior. The Moldovan Criminal Code criminalizes separately corruption and bribery in the private sector.

In 2016, Parliament passed two new statutes to the Criminal Code criminalizing the misuse of international assistance funds. This statute will help identify and prosecute any misuse of international donors’ assistance by Moldovan public officials in public acquisitions, technical assistance programs and grants areas.

In November 2012, as part of the Justice Sector Reform Action Plan, the Ministry of Justice drafted a series of amendments in the anti-corruption area. This package of anticorruption amendments include: new legislation on integrity testing of justice sector officials, the introduction of extended confiscation and illicit enrichment statutes in the Moldovan Criminal Code as per the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). The new Criminal Code statutes and new laws on integrity testing of public officials and disciplinary liability law for judges were passed in late 2013, and amended in 2016 to include the following amendments:

Parliament also passed a law in 2016 providing for a gradual increase of prosecutors’ salaries in the framework of the prosecutorial reform.

The country has laws regulating the conflict of interests in awarding contracts and the overall government procurement process; however laws are not effectively enforced. For instance in 2016 anticorruption prosecutors initiated five criminal cases dealing with public officials involved in procurements for the public health and education.

Despite the established anti-corruption framework, the number of cases involving prosecution of corruption did not meet international expectations (given corruption perceptions), and enforcement of existing legislation is widely deemed insufficient. The dismissal, in April 2013, of the government on corruption allegations has worsened the Moldovan society’s perception of corruption. After dropping to 103rd place in 2014, Moldova’s ranking in the 2015 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index remained unchanged, while the country’s score dropped to 33 out of 100 from 35 a year earlier. In the 2016 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, Moldova scored 30 points and ranked 123rd.

A Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) survey done in 2013 shows that 71 percent of Moldovans think that corruption is a very serious problem and 60 percent think that the government’s efforts to fight corruption are ineffective. At the same time, according to the GCB, 80 percent of Moldovan citizens believe that the most corrupt institution is the judiciary, followed by police (76 percent) and political parties (75 percent).

Post has received many reports from foreign investors of serious problems with corruption and bribery. For example, when a foreign investor discovered that he had underpaid his taxes and wished to remedy the situation, the tax inspector assigned to the company attempted to extort money. The tax service later lauded the investor for his self-reporting and negotiated a reduced payment.

Post has also received reports of "informal" hostile takeovers of profitable businesses. In these cases, business owners were approached by politically-connected individuals who wished to acquire part of the businesses. When business owners refused, they were pressured to close.

In 2007, Moldova ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption, subsequently adopting amendments to its domestic anti-corruption legislation.

Moldova is not a signatory of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery. However, Moldova is part of two regional anti-corruption initiatives: the Stability Pact Anti-Corruption Initiative for South East Europe (SPAI) and the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) of the Council of Europe. Moldova cooperates closely with the OECD through SPAI and with GRECO, especially on country evaluations. In 1999, Moldova signed the Council of Europe's Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and Civil Law Convention on Corruption. Moldova ratified both conventions in 2003.

Resources to Report Corruption

Viorel Chetraru
Director, National Anti-Corruption Center
Bul. Stefan cel Mare si Sfant 168, Chisinau MD2004, Moldova
Tel. +373 22-257 257 (secretariat)/800-55555 (hotline)/22-257 333 (special line)
secretariat@cna.md

Lilia Carasciuc
Executive Director, Transparency International Moldova
Strada 31August 1989 nr. 98, of.205, Chisinau MD2004, Moldova
Tel. +373-22 203-484(office)/800-10 000 (hotline)
office@transparency.md

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