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2007 Assessment

Moldova: Integrity Indicators Scorecard

Moldova: Integrity Scorecard Report > Sub-Category: Civil Service Regulations
Indicators		Score
41	Are there national regulations for the civil service encompassing, at least, the managerial and professional staff?	100
42	Is the law governing the administration and civil service effective?	33
43	Are there regulations addressing conflicts of interest for civil servants?	25
44	Can citizens access the asset disclosure records of senior civil servants?	33

Indicator and sub-Indicator Details

Are there national regulations for the civil service encompassing, at least, the managerial and professional staff?

41a: In law, there are regulations requiring an impartial, independent and fairly managed civil service.

Score:

YES

Comments: The law establishes the foundations and principles for a professional, objective and fairly managed corp of civil servants (art.4). With the recent reform of the central administration (December 2005), the government decided to change the existing law, and since January 2007 it prepared a draft of the new law on civil service function.

References: Civil Service Law (No.443-XIII of 04.05.1995);

Web-page of the coordination unit of the central administration reform: www.rapc.gov.md

41b: In law, there are regulations to prevent nepotism, cronyism, and patronage within the civil service.

Score:

YES

Comments: Art.11 of the Law stipulates a long list of restrictions and limitations that apply to civil servants in order to prevent nepotism, cronyism and clientelle-bound networks. In particular, the article provisions prohibits explicitly to the civil servants to be a member of political party, to run entrepreneurial activities (while in the civil service), to get salaries from private companies or joint ventures, to travel on the expenses paid by private individuals, etc.

References: Civil Service Law (No.443-XIII of 04.05.1995)

41c: In law, there is an independent redress mechanism for the civil service.

Score:

YES

$Scoring Criteria :: YES: A YES score is earned if there is a mechanism to which civil servants and applicants for the civil service can take grievances regarding civil service management actions. Civil servants are able to appeal the mechanism\'s decisions to the judiciary. NO: A NO score is earned if no such mechanism exists.$

Comments: Art.30 of the law stipulates the mechanism of redress when civil servants are ilegally dismissed: they may apply in court, and when their innocence is proved they shall be re-established in their previous position, being paid for the whole period of time of dismissal.

References: Civil Service Law (No.443-XIII of 04.05.1995)

41d: In law, civil servants convicted of corruption are prohibited from future government employment.

Score:

YES

Comments: Art 11 of the law prohibits recruitment of individuals who had been sentenced by a judiciary decision.

References: Civil Service Law (No.443-XIII of 04.05.1995)

Is the law governing the administration and civil service effective?

42a: In practice, civil servants are protected from political interference.

Score:

100

Comments: In practice, civil servants are very dependent on the changes/reshuffles of the government. After 2001, with the victory of the Communist Party, the Cabinet of Ministers went through major reshuffles, which meant in practice a political cleansing and exams on loyalty to the party in power. Without a strong emphasize on the civil service impartiality and neutrality, people employed by the government have a dificult time to accomodate with the new political cycles; political influence of the presidency is extremely high, where the president is concomitently the head of the ruling party (first secretary), and the leading ninisters belonging only to one majoritarian party. The same is usually replicated at the local governmental level.

References: IDIS Monitoring Reports 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005: www.viitorul.org;

Strategy of reform of the central public administration of the RM (No.1402 of 30.12.2005);

Center for Investigative Journalism: www.investigatii.md;

Ion Osoianu - Consolidarea capacitatii administrative pentru implementarea Planului de actiuni UE - RM, 2006, DFID

Peer Review Comments: Civil servants' system is based on political appointments and has not been yet reformed towards career appointments.

42b: In practice, civil servants are appointed and evaluated according to professional criteria.

Score:

100

Comments: The organization of the civil service is in practice extremely confusing and non-structurated. No relevant statistics exist at the national level as per civil servants, concerning their age, gender balance, wave compensations system, number of positions held, performances accomplished, languages, professional upgrade, etc. There is no one single central administrative body in charge with civil service reform and human resource management in the government. This Agency is promissed by the on-going strategy of reforms in the central administration, which shall establish performance indicators in conducting a public job, professional standards, and job manuals, although currently there is a huge gap between the reform and the responsibilities assigned to the civil servants.

References: Ion Osoianu, Casa Europei Association, June 2007 Sergiu Tatarov, Advisor to the Prime-Minister of RM, May 2007

Peer Review Comments: The civil public service in Moldova is not based on a normal rotating system which exists in industrialized countries. Rather, it heavily depends on who wins the election. Every winning party appoints loyal servants, and the next coming party removes most of them to install its own people. Both then and now, a compromised politician who is close to the power may get a diplomatic job (which is very profitable), in spite of a poor or no diplomatic education. While studying at the Academy of Public Administration in 2000-2001, I met average ranking public servants who were pursuing an administrative or diplomatic training, in order to make their posts compatible with their level of education. I met mayors, chiefs of various government departments, and police officers.

Peer Review Comments: Public competitions and selections through a Board of Experts are not yet enrooted in Moldova in terms civil servants' appointment.

Peer Review Comments: Ii agree with the reviewer that the civil service is a mess (to paraphrase). But the reason is more due to lack of capactiy then to politicisation like the kind you see in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

42c: In practice, civil service management actions (e.g. hiring, firing, promotions) are not based on nepotism, cronyism, or patronage.

Score:

100

Comments:

References: Ion Osoianu : www.expert-grup.org/pub/expert/osoianu.pdf;

Marianne Mikko. Member of the EU Parliament, chairwoman of the Committee on Interparliamentary Cooperation RM - EU, March 27, 2006, in Chisinau, Jurnal de Chisinau, No.468, April 4, 2006;

Law on Combatting Corruption and Protectionism (NO.900 of 27.06.1996);

Transparency International - Moldova;

Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption: www.capc.md

Peer Review Comments: Many hirings are based on loyalty towards the ruling party. On 25 October 2007, President Voronin, for example, announced that he would appoint Ion Ursu, chief of the domestic security service, as ambassador to Greece. Mr. Ursu does not have a diplomatic training, but he has been a loyal supporter of the communist administration in cracking down on opposition and independent media.

Peer Review Comments: Management decisions are often arbitrary and it is common the practice of firing good professionals in order to make available a seat for a relative or friend. For example, at the MFA appointments of Ambassadors are being done based on merits before the Communists Party: a number of Ambassadors are member of the party who do not speak a foreign language and have no diplomatic experience/education.

Peer Review Comments: Again, compared to other countries, Moldovan agencies are not so bad. Most of the Moldovans I know never knew each other before working in their dept.

42d: In practice, civil servants have clear job descriptions.

Score:

100

$Scoring Criteria :: 100 Score Criteria: Civil servants almost always have formal job descriptions establishing levels of seniority, assigned functions, and compensation. Job descriptions are a reliable means to map positions to both human capital requirements (including the position\'s authority and responsibilities) and base pay. 50 Score Criteria: Civil servants often have formal job descriptions, but exceptions exist. Some civil servants may not be part of the formal assignment of duties and compensations. Some job descriptions may not map clearly to pay or responsibilities in some cases. 0 Score Criteria: Civil servants do not have formal roles or job descriptions. If they do, such job descriptions have little or nothing to do with the position\'s responsibilities, authority, or pay.$

Comments: Civil servants have currently no detailed job description. Their work is generally conducted and planned on the basis of 'flying priorities' of the mid-level servants, which are fully subordinated to the political appointees, aproved by the ruling party. Central administration reform aims to build up efficient governance to the standards of the EU mebmer-states. The reform calls for the re-organization of central administration, optimization of the decision-making process and improvement of human resources management. The strategy is based on redefining competencies and functions of central executive institutions and reconfiguring the structure of the central executive institutions.

References: Ion Osoianu, Letter of intent, Moldova - IMF: ww.imf.org/external/np/loi/2006

Peer Review Comments: The government lacks a human resource policy and has not studied the labor market - including public service - in order to streamline employment procedures. Public perception is that employment in the civil service is commonly used as a reward. Moldova has experienced two administrative-territorial reforms - one in 1998 (from the Soviet system to a modern, decentralized organization), and another in 2002 (backwards). The second reform was seen by ADEPT, IDIS, Expert-Grup and other think tanks as a measure to reward the supporters of the Communists, who won the elections, and to further control the local public administration. The functions between the first level and second level local authorities that appeared as a result of these movements are still unclear under many aspects and sometimes conflicting. See Law on Local Public Administration, Law on Status of Public Functionaries.

Peer Review Comments: Moldovan government institutions dont have the HR practices we have in the EU. But its not true that civil servants just hang out and do whatever their told (or whatever they want). Executive instructions mandate how depts work. Individual civil servants have tasks given by their bosses. I've not seen alot of reshuffling in the departments Ive advised.

42e: In practice, civil servant bonuses constitute only a small faction of total pay.

Score:

100

$Scoring Criteria :: 100 Score Criteria: Civil servant bonuses constitute no more than 10% of total pay and do not represent a major element of take-home pay. 50 Score Criteria: Civil servant bonuses are generally a small percentage of total take-home pay for most civil servants though exceptions exist where some civil servants\' bonuses represent a significant part of total pay. 0 Score Criteria: Most civil servants receive bonuses that represent a significant amount of total take-home pay. In some cases bonuses represent the majority of total pay to civil servants.$

Comments: According to the art.4, wages include the payroll (tarrifar salary of the function), suplementary salary (bonuses, additional payments) and other incentives to the salary, and this structure of the wage is generally applied to the civil servants' remmuneration.

References: Law on Salaries (No.847-XV of 14.02.2002)

Peer Review Comments: In reality, few people know how much a civil servant earns, because the information on pay is not made public. I was in a severe conflict with the National Securities Commission for attempting to count the earnings of Moldovan parliamentarians.

Peer Review Comments: Official bonuses in FSU countries have always been seen in a negative light. Bonuses are bad from a financial framework as well (makes dispersements less predictable in a system that doesnt deal at all with contingent payments).

42f: In practice, the government publishes the number of authorized civil service positions along with the number of positions actually filled.

Score:

100

Comments: There are no public announcements for the governmental positions. Selection of prospective candidates is usually made upon a short list of well-connected people, or of graduates of the governmental-controlled Academy of Public Administration. Often, the competitions serve only to the reconfirmation of the existing plethora of nepotist connections, despite the formal elements of the political regime, and in controversy with the EU-oriented reforms.

References: UNDP country program for the Republic of Moldova (2007 - 2011): www.undp.md/publications/doc

Peer Review Comments: While the government does not disclose generally the number of available positions, it yet advertises via the media for positions it wants to fill in. In addition, the official websites contain the structure of the respective authority and employment opportunities. See [ LINK ], [ LINK ] (Interior Ministry), or [ LINK ] (Finance Ministry), or [ LINK ] (Agriculture Ministry). Whether the selection contest is transparent or not is a different matter.

Peer Review Comments: The Academoy of Public Administration is affiliated to the Presidential Palace of Moldova.

Peer Review Comments: There are phonebooks, organisational charts, announcements for jobs, etc.

42g: In practice, the independent redress mechanism for the civil service is effective.

Score:

100

Comments: The system of redress mechanism is almost inexistent, as there is no a specialized body that would manage the corp of professional civil servants. As a result, political influences and links are consistently penetrating the specific instruments through which civil servants are usually recruited or dismissed.

References: Transparency International - Moldova: www.transparency.md - National Integrity System in Moldova

Peer Review Comments: I think the problem is administrative failure and lack of resources more than poltiicisation...

42h: In practice, in the past year, the government has paid civil servants on time.

Score:

100

Comments: Wages/salaries are paid in time with no major delays. The same can be said about local government officials, althoug they are separated from the civil service system of official positions. To be stated, however, that wages and salaries in the public sector are very low, despite the fact that the government attempted to increase the level of salaries, but not on the basis of performances or accomplished. The salary- increase followed the logic of the age-experience, which is very often an incentive against the young and talented people with briliant education, who remain outside of the system of recruitment/or promotion.

References: Official site of the coordination group for the implementation of the central government reform: www.rapc.gov.md;

Official site of the coordination group for the implemntation of the strategy on poverty reduction and economic growth: www.scers.md;

Transparency International - Moldova: www.transparency.md

42i: In practice, civil servants convicted of corruption are prohibited from future government employment.

Score:

100

Comments: Formally, this provision shall be the rule for all civil servants appointed or selected for public positions. In practice, political actors dispose to replace or move to other positions civil servants that are suspected of corruption, of have been sued for various cases of corruption.

References: Civil Servcice Law (No.443-XIII of 04.05.1995)

Peer Review Comments: Dan Barcari, a police officer was convicted on 30 October 2007, on charges of blackmail and bribe. He was prohibited, among others, to hold any job in the national police force for five years.

Peer Review Comments: There were cases when a civil servant accused of money laundering at Teleradio-Moldova, was sent Ambassador to Israel. He is member of ruling party.

Peer Review Comments: In any case, there are so few cases of successful convictions that a check is even unncessary. Moveover, even of those who are convicted, many successfully appeal the decision.

Are there regulations addressing conflicts of interest for civil servants?

43a: In law, there are requirements for civil servants to recuse themselves from policy decisions where their personal interests may be affected.

Score:

YES

Comments: The law refers to the avoidance of conflicts of interests, where civil servants should step back or declare about a situation in order to avoid corruption or favoritism. Nevertheless, the legislation does not provide specific regulatory mechanisms that would completely cure the system of the public sector from nepotism and blatant corruption cases, therefore the existing legislation on civil service is completely inadequate for this purpose. No specific provisions in the acting law allows civil servants to recuse themselves from policy decisions where their personal interests may be affected.

References: Civil Service Law (1995)

43b: In law, there are restrictions for civil servants entering the private sector after leaving the government.

Score:

YES

$Scoring Criteria :: YES: A YES score is earned if there are regulations restricting civil servants\' ability to take positions in the private sector after leaving government that would present a conflict of interest, including positions that directly seek to influence their former government colleagues. NO: A NO score is earned if no such restrictions exist.$

Comments: No such provisions apply to the civil servants in Moldova.

References: Civil Service Law (No.443-XIII of 04.05.1995)

43c: In law, there are regulations governing gifts and hospitality offered to civil servants.

Score:

YES

Comments: The legislation stipulates that civil servants shall not receive gifts or other polite signs for their services provided in office (art.11 - restrictions). The law does not regulate what is the range of gifts and polite signs that could be accepted and when. Other specific rules, concerning the way of behavior of the civil servant when he may receive gifts, favors or benefits of other kind, as well as the evidence, presentation and utilization of these gifts within the framework of protocolar/interntional convenants, are almost inexistent. Therefore no governmental body would keep special registrars of gifts, and no kind of control over the acceptance or utilization of gifts is currently in place in Moldova.

References: Civil Service Law Transparency International - Moldova: www.transparency.md

43d: In practice, the regulations restricting post-government private sector employment for civil servants are effective.

Score:

100

Comments: There are no effective or formal rules restricting civil servants to be hired after leaving the government in the field that they have earlier managed or overseen.

References: Civil Service Law (No.443-XIII of 04.05.1995) Transparency International - Moldova

43e: In practice, the regulations governing gifts and hospitality offered to civil servants are effective.

Score:

100

Comments: Gifts and other hospitality signs received by the public officials are not registered or codified by a special registrar. Many other extra-payroll benefits are received free of charge by the top-level officials of Moldova and by mid-level officials, on the presumption of their full isolation from public oversight and control.

References: Lilia Carasciuc - Transparency International Moldova: www.transparency.md

Peer Review Comments: Comments above indicate a 0 grade.

43f: In practice, the requirements for civil service recusal from policy decisions affecting personal interests are effective.

Score:

100

Comments: Art.13 provides a number of cases where conflicts of interests can take place, and which shall be avoided by the enrolled civil servants. In practice, there are public suspicions about the quality of public acquisitions.

References: Civil Service Law (1995)

Peer Review Comments: In the public administration of the capital, for example, many heads of departments and districts took part in contests or favored close people who claimed public contracts. The new mayor, Dorin Chirtoaca, admitted that he discovered a close-knitted network of interests in his administration, in such issues as construction, land sale, transportation. There are insistent allegations that President Vladimir Voronin had ordered removal of the minibus service from the central avenue in Chisinau in order to make room for his son, a banker and businessman who has been looking for stakes in almost everything in Moldova.

Can citizens access the asset disclosure records of senior civil servants?

44a: In law, citizens can access the asset disclosure records of senior civil servants.

Score:

YES

Comments: Income declarations shall be posted on a webpage of the ministries or state agencies, in a transparent and systematic order. Disclosure of the assessts and incomes is equaly regulated by the law.

References: Law on Declarations and Control of Incomes and Estate Properties (no.1264-XV of 19.07.2002) Law on Access to Information (no.982-XIV of 11.05.2000)

44b: In practice, citizens can access the asset disclosure records of senior civil servants within a reasonable time period.

Score:

100

Comments: In practice, disclosure acts are rarely used, and mass media have to fight hard in order to depict declarations, and usually politicians or civil sevants sue journalists when they publish their reports for using 'personal information'. Due to the fact that these reports can be seen by a non-independent judiciary in Moldova as 'information of personal use', mass media often pay painful fines, and are generally cautious to lose in court cases against top-level officials, which are politically and judiciary advantaged.

References: Transparency International Moldova: www.transparency.md;

Center for Investigative Journalism: www.investigatii.md

Peer Review Comments: Delays in releasing information are common feature. Normally, it takes more than a month for a journalist to obtain information on assets owned by civil servants. Regular people do not know about the Law on Access to Information, in first instance. When they know about it, they are highly skeptical about the outcome, and choose to save "time and nerves". Public trust in civil servants is significantly low as it is seen as a corrupt environment.

Peer Review Comments: These data are not easily available (and I dont blame the Moldovan authorities for their decision to keep this information private).

44c: In practice, citizens can access the asset disclosure records of senior civil servants at a reasonable cost.

Score:

100

Comments: There is no such practice that information which is banned by civil servants can be aquired or purchased at a high price. Only confidential information can be accessed by mass media and used in investigative reporting.

References: Center for Investigative Journalism www.investigatii.md;

International Transparency - Moldova: www.transparency.md