Moldova needs a reform of institutions that fight against organized crime

Combating the organized crime should be a competence of the police and not just of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, is necessary to establish the role of investigative officers for better combating the phenomenon. Recommendations were presented at the roundtable meeting of the Working Group Visas, Borders and Transnistria, of the project "The National Convention for the European Integration".

Central and local administration officials, independent experts, NGO leaders, business representatives, officials and partners from the Slovak Republic discussed the problems encountered in combating crime and proposed a series of recommendations.

The main problem to be solved as soon as possible, according to participants, refers to disperse institutions struggling with the eradication of organized crime phenomenon in Moldova.

"We have too many dispersed institutions, too many heads and then, we can not talk about an efficiency in this field. We have the anti-drug direction, the organized crime direction is again separated, as well as money laundering. These units should be merged", believes Mihail Beregoi, European Integration Studies Centre.

For example, Slovakia passed in 2004 to merge all the separate units in one institution, which resulted in doubling the number of persons responsible for investigations.

"Some years ago, Slovakia was in a situation similar to how is Moldova today. We had to implement more reforms and to review legislation”, explained Miroslava Vozaryova, expert from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Slovakia. In this regard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs elaborates an Action Plan and outlined several priorities, including, conducting international exercises for gaining experience in combating crime, evaluation of personal data, organizing a workshop for data collection on human trafficking victims to avoid discrepancy of figures that appear in various reports.

This project is implemented by the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives "Viitorul", the Independent Analytical Center Expert-Group and the Foreign Policy Association, in partnership with the Slovak Foreign Policy Association and the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic

This project aims to generate debates and make recommendations to Government and Government agencies in their efforts to rally norms and national legislation to EU standards and norms, in particular in developing and implementing the acquis communautaire in Moldova.

For more information contact the Public Relations Coordinator, Diana Lungu on telephone 221 844 or by  e-mail diana.lungu@viitorul.org