Operational Capacities in the field of prevention and investigation of actions of corruption shall be consolidated within a Twinning Project supported by the EU

The first anticorruption Twinning Project entitled „Support in the strengthening of the operational capacities of the law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Moldova in the field of prevention and investigation of criminal acts of corruption" was launched today in Chisinau. This project was created for increasing the capacity of fight against corruption by providing assistance and support to the National Anticorruption Centre (NAC) as the main Beneficiary, Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office (APO), Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), General Police Inspectorate (GPI) and Customs Service (CS). 

The general objective of the project is to strengthen the corruption investigation capacities of those five Law Enforcement Agencies and the Twinning method offers the Moldavian authorities the possibility to acquire the experience and the good practices of partners from homologous institutions from the EU member countries.  

At the launching event the participants were greeted by the Head of the EU Delegation in the Republic of Moldova, Peter Michalko, Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania Rimantas Latakas, Ambassador of Romania, Daniel Ionita as well as the heads of the beneficiary institutions: National Anticorruption Centre, Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office, Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Police Inspectorate and Customs Service.

His Excellency Mr. Peter Michalko in his speech mentioned that: "The fight against corruption is both a continuous commitment in the relationship of political cooperation of the EU with the Republic of Moldova and a highly sensitive area, fact that makes expectations of the citizens in relation to this project to be great."

Head of the National Anticorruption Centre Viorel Chetraru addressed all the involved parties and specified that the successful implementation of the project depends on a professional and multilateral approach of each actor and also on a friendly and constructive dialogue between parties. At the same time "The efficient and durable accomplishment shall favor the achievement of goals of the national anticorruption policy and shall improve the position of our country in the national and international rankings on anticorruption standards and indicators monitoring".

At the beginning of the Project presentation, Zydrunas Bartkus, First Deputy Director of the Special Investigation Service from Lithuania, Member State Project Leader, mentioned that "the purpose of the team is not only to share the experience of partner countries in the prevention and combatting corruption but also to work together in a more efficient investigation of the acts of corruption".

The project shall be implemented by a consortium of specialized institutions from the Republic of Lithuania (senior partner), Romania (junior partner) and Finland (junior partner). With a duration of 24 months it has a budget of approximately one million euro for all the beneficiary authorities.

The expected project results are:

- strengthening of the capacities of the Law Enforcement Agencies in the fight against corruption through the appropriate use of special investigative techniques, methods and equipment.

- improvement of the decision-making process, internal procedures as well as inter-agency cooperation, coordination and communication related to the investigation of criminal cases of corruption.

- consolidation of capacities of the NAC, in line with respecting human rights, in conducting the institutional integrity assessment and professional integrity testing in the public sector.