Civil servants will have to observe a code of conduct approved by Parliament

The public officials in Moldova will be obliged to respect the Civil Servant’s Code of Conduct that was approved by the Parliament on February 15, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the given code, the civil servants are not allowed to accept gifts, benefit from services, favours and other advantages that are intended for them, their family, relatives, friends, individual and legal entities with which they had business or political relations that can influence their activity or that can be considered recompense for fulfilling one’s duties. The civil servant can accept, according to the unanimously accepted politeness and hospitality norms, signs of attention and symbolic souvenirs that do not exceed the norms stipulated in the legislation. While holding a public post, the official cannot take part in events to raise funds for the activity of political parties and other social-political organisations, use administrative resources for supporting electoral candidates, encourage propaganda and agitation in favour of a party, etc. The civil servant that considers that he is asked or imposed to act illegally or in contradiction with the norms of conduct must report such cases to superiors. A norm of the Code that aroused dissatisfaction among the Opposition MPs says that only an entitled official can communicate and establish contacts with the mass media. Stefan Secareanu, Gheorghe Susarenco and other legislators said that this stipulation is a violation of the human rights and of the legislation on the access to information. According to the Ministry of Justice, the Code of Conduct was worked out with the aim of establishing standards of behaviour, of enhancing the quality of civil service and of preventing corruption.