Moldova Adopts an Anti-Corruption Strategy

The Programme and the Plan were adopted by Parliamentary Decree of 28 December 2023 No. 442 “On the Adoption of the National Integrity and Anti-Corruption Programme for the years 2024 through 2028 and the Action Plan for the Implementation of the National Integrity and Anti-Corruption Programme for the years 2024 through 2028” (Parlamentul Hotărâre Nr. 442 din 28-12-2023 privind aprobarea Programului național de integritate și anticorupție pentru anii 2024–2028 și a Planului de acțiuni pentru implementarea Programului național de integritate și anticorupție pentru anii 2024–2028) that entered into force on 22 February 2024 and are aimed at suppressing corruption and enhancing integrity in the public and private sectors in the following four areas.

1. Development and implementation of integrity standards in the public sector

The goal of this line of action is to enhance the culture of integrity in public bodies by putting the standards of conduct of public officials in line with the applicable best practices.

To achieve this goal, the Programme and the Plan envisage the following objectives:

1. Enhance the culture of integrity in public bodies by:

Recruiting and promoting officials based on their performance and professional integrity;
Raising awareness of officials about the principles of institutional integrity, foundations of the fight against corruption, and the procedure for reporting corruption offences also through e-learning tools;
Strengthening the oversight of compliance with the anti-corruption restrictions, prohibitions and obligations, including the prevention of conflict-of-interest situations, favoritism and inappropriate receipt of gifts;
Enhancing control of assets and interest disclosures also by including digital assets and assets of third parties (owners who are the beneficiaries) in the list of property to be declared, implementing automatic verification of declarations with regard to their timely filing, use of the appropriate form of declaration and visible indicators of violation of the declaration regime, and conducting risk assessments in verifying declarations;
Amending legal acts regulating the acceptance of gifts;
Adopting codes of ethics for the members of Parliament;
Obliging officials to report the illegal attempts to influence them, in particular, by inducing them to commit corruption offences;
Drafting and adopting the provisions regulating disclosure of offences and protection of whistleblowers etc.;

2. Ensure open governance and transparency in public decision-making through:

Obliging the National Anti-Corruption Centre (Centrul Național Anticorupție), National Integrity Authority (Autoritatea Națională de Integritate), Prosecutor General’s Office, Accounts’ Chamber and Ombudsman to annually submit a report on their activities to Parliament;
Developing an e-platform for online monitoring of the legislative process starting from the moment of registration of draft laws in Parliament to their adoption;
Conducting anti-corruption verification of draft legal acts only after the work on them is completed, and publishing the list of comments in the conclusions of the anti-corruption verification procedure on web-pages of the Government/Parliament;
Assessing the need to establish the post of “Integrity Counselor”;
Assessing the need to draft and adopt legal acts regulating lobbying activities;

3. Promote proper administration of public property through:

Ensuring transparent and responsible management of public property and foreign funding;
Enhancing effectiveness of the public procurement system also by using an electronic system for the whole procurement cycle, reducing operational costs and establishing a joint procurement mechanism;
Training officials involved in public procurement on how to plan and conduct procurement procedures, including market research, holding of procurement procedures and selection of winners;
Ensuring functionality of internal audit units in public bodies;

4. Enhance integrity and reduce corruption in the electoral process by:

Implementing the mechanisms of rapid exchange of information between the Central Electoral Commission, Anti-Corruption Division of the Prosecutor General’s Office, National Centre to Counter Corruption, Ministry of the Interior, Bureau on Information and Security of Party Financing and Elimination of Violations in Elections, in particular, during electoral campaigns;
Regulating financing of political parties, in particular, by developing online financing platforms to enhance its transparency;
Regulating political advertising and electoral campaigns in the online environment;
Improving the mechanism for monitoring actual expenses of political parties and candidates in elections.

2. Enhanced effectiveness of measures for preventing and combating corruption and inevitability of punishment for corruption offences/crimes

In the second area, the Programme sets the goal to improve institutional environment to enhance effectiveness of investigation and criminal prosecution of corruption, boost efficiency of court proceedings and sentencing, enhancing integrity of courts involved in investigation, criminal prosecution and proceedings with regard to corruption cases.

To achieve this goal, the Programme and the Plan formulate such objectives as:

1. Enhance effectiveness of implementation of corruption prevention measures by:

Delegating the heads of public bodies the responsibility for formulating, maintaining and strengthening the culture of integrity;
Developing the “reLAWed” platform to provide society with the possibility to participate in drafting/amending legal acts, as well as the “е-Integritate instituțională” automated information system for collecting, storing and verifying declarations;
Strengthening institutional powers of the National Anti-Corruption Centre and the National Integrity Body for Corruption Prevention;
Deepening cooperation of the National Integrity Body with administrative territorial units with a view to enhancing institutional integrity;

2. Improve institutional environment to enhance effectiveness of investigation of corruption and its prosecution by:

Developing institutional, technical and operational capabilities of the National Anti-Corruption Centre and the Anti-Corruption Division of the Prosecutor General’s Office in investigating and countering corruption and related offences/crimes also through education and professional training of investigators, individuals conducting criminal prosecution and prosecutors on criminal prosecution against corruption;
Enhancing transparency of investigation and criminal prosecution against corruption;
Improving the mechanisms of execution of confiscation decisions with due regard to international practice in the field;
Improving legal acts regulating the activities of the bodies responsible for asset recovery;

3. Enhance effectiveness of corruption proceedings and sentencing through:

Creating judicial instances specialising in corruption and corruption-related offences/crimes and allocating sufficient human, technical and financial resources to them;
Developing and adopting a mechanism for external monitoring of implementation of the provisions of trial agreements concluded in the public interest by the legal persons that are suspected of corruption offences, and a mechanism for reuse of confiscated property in the public interest;
Improving professional competences also by training of judges and prosecutors in considering corruption or corruption-related cases with the participation of whistleblowers and persons assisting victims and those affected in criminal prosecution of such cases;
Preparing and issuing guidance for judges on how to consider corruption cases etc.;

4. Enhance the culture of integrity in the courts investigating, prosecuting and considering corruption cases by:

Assessing institutional risks of corruption in courts and implementing mitigation measures;
Adopting measures to improve mechanisms for property arrest;
Analysing law enforcement practice with regard to corruption and corruption-related offences/crimes;

5. Ensure and continuously develop international cooperation on integrity, prevention of and fight against corruption by:

Strengthening cooperation with foreign, regional and international organisations/entities on promoting integrity, preventing and countering corruption, recovering assets also with the aim to improve information exchange with them;
Implementing provisions of international agreements in the area of prevention and fight against corruption;
Cooperating and exchanging information on the cases of fraudulent acquisition, misuse and misappropriation of funding from external funds provided by the European Union on corruption and corruption-related offences/crimes that can damage the EU financial interests.

3. Promotion of integrity and reduction of the number of corruption offences/crimes in the private sector also in the entities owned fully or prevalently by the state

Another goal of the Programme consists in strengthening transparency standards in business, promoting and ensuring integrity in the private sector, and enhancing transparency in the provision of state aid.

To achieve this goal, the Programme formulates the following objectives:

1. Promote the standards of transparency and integrity in the organisations owned fully or prevalently by the state through:

Adopting codes of conduct and organising training of the personnel by these organisations;
Developing remuneration policy with regard to the managerial and control bodies excluding any political influence and influence of the managers on distribution of the net profit;
Assessing compliance of activities undertaken by organisations with the anti-corruption and good corporate governance laws and standards;
Compiling and subsequently updating risk registers, including fraud and corruption risks, as well as monitoring the implementation of measures to mitigate them by public and private organisations etc.;

2. Promote and ensure integrity in the private sector by:

Developing and adopting legal acts restricting the movement of officials between the public and private sectors (regulation of the “revolving door”);
Creating a bonus system for complying with the principles of integrity in the private sector, and developing incentives for companies for their compliance with the ISO 37001 international standard “Anti-Bribery Management Systems”;
Assessing the need to establish the institution of the Ombudsman to defend the right of entrepreneurs;

3. Enhance transparency of provision of state aid by:

Assessing the risks of corruption offences/crimes in the procedures of review and provision of subsidies and state aid to the private sector;
Automating and anonymizing the process of preliminary assessment of applications for grants and state aid;
Putting domestic legal framework in line with the requirements of the EU legislation regulating the provision of state aid.

4. Promotion of intolerance towards corruption offences/crimes and encouragement of reporting of such offences

The final goal of the Programme consists in promoting public intolerance towards corruption and corruption-related offences and raising awareness of reporting corruption offences/crimes.

To achieve this goal, the Programme suggests meeting the following objectives:

1. Enhance public intolerance of corruption and corruption-related offences/crimes by:

Raising awareness about corruption also based on research of the phenomenon of corruption;
Engaging society in anti-corruption efforts;

2. Promote public reporting of corruption and corruption-related offences/crimes by:

Creating and maintaining a hotline that would optimize the receipt and recording of public calls, as well as specialised reporting channels in public bodies;
Developing guidance on reporting corruption for the general public.

The obligation to monitor and assess the implementation of the National Integrity and Anti-Corruption Programme for the years 2024 through 2028 and the Action Plan for its implementation rests with the National Anti-Corruption Centre.