The bill to amend and supplement the Law on Public Post and Status of Public Functionary goes against the regime of incompatibility of posts and affects the fight against corruption, consider authors of the initiative appraisal carried out by the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC). The report was presented in a news conference at IPN on December 20.
Expert Viorel Parvan said the announced goal of the bill is to enable the public functionaries to carry out other remunerated activities in the private sector, excluding thus the restrictions and incompatibilities imposed for public posts. The informative note to the appraised bill does not contain sufficient arguments in favor of such a law. The authors didn’t provide convincing arguments as to the necessity of excluding particular incompatibilities in public posts and didn’t describe the possible consequences, effects and impact of such legal provisions.
Viorel Parvan noted that such an initiative will inevitably lead to conflicts of interests as it will enable the public functionaries to work in the private sector. The current legislation, by such bans, actually tries to avoid the conflicts of interests. This initiative runs counter to the international standards and principles, which stipulate that the public functionaries cannot hold a post in the private sector simultaneously.
The expert considers that if the bill is adopted by Parliament in the final reading, the respect for the principles of transparency, participation and accountability will be insufficiently ensured. The appraisal report says the adoption of this bill by Parliament is inopportune.
CAPC president Galina Bostan said such an initiative is not needed now. Besides the fact that the state institutions are weak, the public functionaries will not be able to ensure a high quality in their job as they will give priority to the work that will bring higher revenues.
The appraisal was conducted within the project “Harmonization of the legislation with the international human rights standards” that is financially supported by the Human Rights Defenders of Sweden.
