IDIS “Viitorul" proposes solutions to combat conflicts of public interests

IDIS "Viitorul" launched Tuesday, June 26, the study "The conflict of interest and incompatibilities in the Local Public Administration in Moldova", elaborated on the initiative and support of Soros-Moldova Foundation/The Good Governance Program in the project "Support in elaborating public policy studies”. IDIS experts have proposed a series of recommendations in law and in terms of regulatory and policy changes on the settlement of conflicts of interest and incompatibilities in Local Public Administration (LPA) institutions.

A particular problem regarding the local elected officials or the public officials in their activity refers to the appearance of incompatibility and the conflict of interest. According to the Directorate General Investigation of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Moldova, during controls was revealed an enormous number of cases of incompatibilities for the public function, when local mayors occupied concomitant other functions and carry out other activities, including holding positions in management bodies of commercial structures. "From 54 cases of incompatibility identified by the Central Electoral Commission, 26 still remain unresolved," said Liubomir Chiriac, director of IDIS "Viitorul".

As examples of incompatibility, according to present law rules are: the mandate of the elected local official position is incompatible with the position of the public official in the territorial office of the State Chancellery, and the president and the vice-president of the district don’t have the right to have or to comulate another function, based on a contract or agreement,  in foreign companies or joint companies and organizations, enterprises, institutions and organizations of any legal form.
Regarding the conflict of interest, IDIS "Viitorul" study shows that most such cases are registerd when assigning land sectors of the built land for building houses, in cases of afferent land construction sale, the construction of houses g and buildings with different destination and in cases of obtaining funds and various financial sources and materials.

Authors examine gaps that exist in the area of decentralization. According to them, to get certain benefits and advantages, not necessarily personal one or for rge community or district which they represent, are need strong connections regarding the party line or special personal relationship with policy makers.

From now on start all problems relating to conflicts of interest, also the distribution or acquisition of certain goods, where local officials take into account the interests of party or the relations of friendship and kinship. Similarly, incompatibilities, such as "primary and local councilor" or "president and district councilor ", in  the administrative units remain "unnoticed" by all the responsible bacause of some party reasons, or due to informal relations and connections of friendship which obviously "can not be canceled" by law.

"The lack of decentralization and deconcentration make that  local elected officials and  public officials to become responsible, primarily, for the party and party leaders that promote that candidate and rather for citizens", said the IDIS “Viitorul”, Victor Mocanu.

Among factors that contribute to the persistence of these phenomena are:

• Frequent changes in the LPA legislation that settles out the powers and relations between different administrative levels;
•  Law on local public finances, which doesn’t establish a clear mechanism for the financial coverage for delegated functions , the way costs are estimated and how to delegate prerogatives to local authorities and consequences of non-enforcement delegated duties financial uncovered;
• Lack of transparency in LPA’s activity;
• Lack of legislation of solving incompatibilities cases;
• Lack of the legislative provisions with regard to penalties for local councils that don’t  examine situations of incompatibility in terms stipulated by law.

"To talk about successful activities we need political will from the central government. However, political leaders in Moldova are expected to reflect more transparent party financing”, believes Angela Secrieru, IDIS “Viitorul” financial expert.

IDIS experts have proposed a series of recommendations for legislation amendments, for it to be consistent and to not leave space for interpretations and exceptions: approval of a national policy to prevent and remedy conflicts of interest and incompatibilities regime in the LPA; reviewing the relevant legislative framework in the conflict of interest and incompatibilities; establishment (appointment) of an independent state body to prevent and investigate cases of conflict of interest and the incompatibilities regime.

The legislative proposals submitted by IDIS "Viitorul" was presented and examined by the Parliamentary Commission on Legal Affairs and Immunities and the Legal Directory of the Parliament Secretariat.

The Parliamentary Commission on Legal Affairs and Immunities president, Victor Popa, said that was created a working group to examine the proposals and their materialization in a bill. "The Commission welcomes the initiative of IDIS" Viitorul" on the preparation of this study and the proposals submitted by experts. In this regard, the Commission is open to cooperation on improvement of legislation in different areas and its harmonization with EU standards”, said Victor Popa.

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