The Parliament postponed an impending vote on six draft laws from the judicial reform package, after they were found to be incomplete. The reform of Albania's justice system, which has been discussed since 2014, aims to fight political appointments in the judiciary. In July, the Parliament voted unanimously on a crucial judicial reform package, making amendments to 46 articles of the constitution. The move was compiled with the expert advice of US justice missions and suggestions from the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission.

An Albanian court has sentenced former labour minister Spiro Ksera to 20 months in jail for abuse of office. Ksera, who served as the Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities until 2013, was convicted for setting aside 30 million leks ($285,000) for activities with the Roma community that never took place. The money allegedly went into the pockets of the minister and his staff. Ksera denied the charges and his lawyer said he will appeal.

The organisation began its first ever in-depth assessment of corruption risks in Albania with a press conference in Tirana. The National Integrity System Assessment - Albania 2016 evaluates the anti-corruption efficacy of all principal institutions and actors that form a state. This includes all branches of government, the media, the public and private sectors, and civil society. Looking at both legislation and its enforcement in practice, the study provides an overview of corruption vulnerabilities and legal loopholes in 15 key institutions. It also puts forward recommendations on how to ensure Albania can seriously tackle its inherent corruption problem.

Azerbaijan has extended its presidential office term from five to seven years, after 91.2% of the electors voted in favour of the proposition. The proposed amendments also create vice-presidential posts and enable the president to dissolve parliament at any time. The Council of Europe’s Venice Commission issued a Preliminary Opinion and negatively assessed the constitutional modifications, noting they were “at odds with European constitutional heritage”. Likewise, observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) recognised the referendum results, but called on the Azeri authorities to improve the voting process. 

The draft law on amendments to the Law on Combatting Corruption envisages the addition of two new articles on providing information on corruption offences and state protection of whistleblowers. The Parliament will also vote on the Draft Law on Code of Ethical Conduct of Parliamentarians, and on the Draft Law on Amendments to Civil Procedural Code to strengthen the fight against the financing of terrorism.

The platform is expected to facilitate cooperation between civil society, the government and the parliament in fiscal transparency, access to information, public participation and aims to provide recommendations on reforms in these fields. It will also help monitor the implementation of the National Action Plan on the Promotion of Open Government.

Varuzhan Hoktanyan, the Executive Director of Transparency International Anticorruption Center NGO, indicated that no serious progress had been recorded in the fight against corruption in Armenia despite the creation of the Anti-Corruption Council. He argued that since the establishment of the Council, officials have claimed that they initiated legislative changes in order to fight corruption but have simply just urged the public to wait. He stated that the AntiCorruption Council working under the leadership of the Prime Minister will not be able to CoE anti-corruption digest 2 September 2016 work efficiently and that such a cause requires an independent body.

A leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Armen Rustamian, has called for concrete action to be taken following Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan’s announcement about the embezzlement of budgetary funds allocated for government officials’ travel expenses. Karapetyan had denounced the activity as “primitive theft” as his cabinet approved a new electronic system of purchasing air tickets for officials travelling abroad on business. However, he failed to implicate any government agency or official for their wrongdoings nor did any lawenforcement bodies launch criminal proceedings in connection with his claim.

During the extraordinary session in Parliament, several bills including a bill on making amendments to the Administrative Offence Code were passed by lawmakers. Presented by Justice Minister Arpine Hovhannisyan, the bill deals with the process of profit declaration of high ranking officials and their affiliated persons, and is in line with the nation’s ongoing anti-corruption strategy.

In the run-up to local elections on October 2, Bosnian political candidates have routinely disrespected election laws and local authorities have failed to prosecute them, according to Dario Jovanovic, the director of Pod Iupom, who are the coalition monitoring the electoral process. He stressed that in rural communities, a CoE anti-corruption digest 3 September 2016 major problem is that lists of voters are out of date, with dead persons not being removed from the register. He also added that some parties were selling party positions in such areas. Report finds that dozens of election candidates are tied to crime claims. A report by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) uncovered that nearly 50 candidates for mayor and municipal chief in the upcoming October elections have been charged, convicted or are under investigation for offences ranging from corruption to war crimes. Being investigated or even being convicted of crimes does not disqualify someone for office in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as long as they have been released. The exception is for those charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia based in the Hague.

A group of experts met in Minsk during September to coordinate the draft Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) anti-corruption cooperation concept. With remarks and proposals from Armenia, Belarus and Russia taken into account, the experts harmonised the draft concept and the corresponding draft decision of the CIS Heads of State Council. Its provisions will make the basis for developing international agreements and other international and domestic legal acts in the CIS, and also interstate anti-corruption programs. 

Commenting on the interim compliance report of the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), the Spokesman for the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dmitry Mironchik stated that the international cooperation against corruption should rely on the dialogue of experts. He pledged further cooperation with the Council of Europe against corruption, mentioning that the participation in GRECO is used by the specialised bodies of Belarus as an instrument for analysing the best foreign practices and improving the national anti-corruption system.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic and the EEA (European Economic Area) and Norway Grants, the Council of Europe’s event brought together 61 participants from 31 countries in Prague during mid-September. The main topics covered included: the terrorism financing (TF) national risk assessment; the vulnerabilities of new payment instruments to TF abuse; and discussions in concern of Financial Intelligence Units’ (FIUs) cooperation to prevent TF.

Responsible, transparent, impartial and efficient institutions can help prevent violence and terrorism, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek said in his opening speech at the OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum in Prague. The three-day forum of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) focused on the principles of good governance and its role in maintaining security and stability. Zaorálek pledged that the Czech Republic would continue to promote good governance and the principles of impartiality, transparency and integrity.

The Czech Parliament approved a bill banning future government members from owning media companies, a move that has direct implications on Finance Minister Andrej Babiš and which will force him to surrender control of his influential newspapers if he wants a cabinet post after the 2017 elections. The legislation tightening of conflict-of-interest rules also bars companies owned by ministers from tapping state funds. The bill was pushed through Parliament in rare cooperation between Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s Social Democrats and conservative opposition parties.

The price tag of Skopje’s new look has shot up, far surpassing the initially announced figure of €80 million, to around €560 million, a BIRN investigation shows.

Macedonian Special Prosecutor’s Office recently celebrated one year of its existence and has published its second report. Katica Janeva called on the Parliament, for the second time, to adopt amendments to the Law on Witness Protection, a key change which could help clarify ongoing cases such as ‘Monster’, ‘Martin Neskoski’ and ‘Sopot’. 

After a leadership meeting involving the presidents of the four biggest political parties in the country, the date for the elections was set for 11 December. Consequently, one hundred days before the polls, a transitional government was formed on 2 September. The SDSM, the biggest opposition party, participates widely in the newly formed transitional government with Oliver Spasovski as Minister for Interior and Frosina Remenska as Minister for Labour and Welfare, amongst other notable positions. The Parliament is expected to dissolve on 12 October.

Georgia improved its position in the Global Competitiveness Index and now ranks as the 59th most competitive country. According to the Index, the progress of Georgia and Azerbaijan had improved the general rating for countries in the Eurasian region. However, the lack of high qualified staff, access to financial resources, inflation, ineffective state bureaucracy, and insufficient infrastructure were still noted to remain as problematic factors in the country.

Around twenty Georgian civil society organisations, watchdog groups and think tanks announced the launch of a Coalition for Euro-Atlantic Georgia to “consolidate their efforts in supporting the country’s NATO and EU integration”. The coalition included organisations such as Transparency International Georgia, the Civil Development Agency, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, the Economic Policy Research Center and the UN Association of Georgia.

In a letter of designation to the Prime Minister, the King of Jordan defined the elections as an important step in the democratic reform path. He stressed, among other CoE anti-corruption digest 5 September 2016 things, that it was the government’s role to “ensure that the National Integrity Charter and the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Law are translated into practices on the ground as far as the daily operations of government entities and public services are concerned”.

Minister of Justice, Bassam Talhouni met his Tunisian counterpart, Ghazi Al Jeribi, to discuss prospects for cementing legal and judicial ties and forge new ideas to advance cooperation. The meeting was held during the Arab Anti-Corruption and Integrity Network convention in Tunis, where Talhouni remarked that “corruption, mainly favouritism, bribery and extortion are a social, moral and political ‘plague’ that should be countered and fought by all ways and means”.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour encouraged Iraqi investors to invest in Jordan by claiming there was not a single case of corruption or “even rumours” recorded in five years. Addressing a gathering of Iraqi businesspeople and politicians, Ensour also highlighted the strengths of the banking sector in Jordan to attract investments.

The Assembly Speaker, Kadri Veseli, welcomed and met with the new Head of Kosovo Anti-Corruption Agency (KAA), Shaip Havolli. Veseli offered his support to the new KAA Head by encouraging him to work as much as possible in preventing and fighting corruption. He stated that the KAA
will have the Assembly’s support in implementing its strategy. Havolli thanked Veseli for his help and pledged that the Anti-Corruption Agency will be open to cooperation with the Assembly to implement its objectives more successfully.

The new Head of EU Office in Kosovo/EU Special Representative, Nataliya Apostolova, has stated that the rule of law presents one of the greatest challenges for Kosovo, with a number of recurring issues such as independence of judiciary, corruption, organised crime, transparency
of certain economic and decision making processes. She made the comments during a conference marking the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA). She added that in the coming period, the EU would like to see further improvements in the area of prevention and combating of corruption, and outlined a five point plan.

The first meeting of the Anti-Corruption Council of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic was held in Bishkek under the chairmanship of the Kyrgyz Prime Minister Temir Sariev, who called for an “ideological attack on corruption”.

Kyrgyzstan’s Parliament has decided to hold a referendum in December on making changes to the constitution. Key provisions of the reform would see the role of Prime Minister being bolstered at the expense of the Parliament and the introduction of laws based on “supreme state values”. Proposals to amend the constitution have come in for strong criticism from civil society as well as from international bodies like the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission.

The referendum will take place on 11 December together with elections for the local municipal councils. The reform concerns 26 constitutional amendments to the Constitution relating to higher values (among others human rights, citizenship, criminal prosecution), the most significant change being a proposal to strengthen the powers of the country’s Prime Minister. In particular, the changes will allow combining the positions of the Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister with MP activities, but also the Prime Minister will have right to appoint and dismiss leaders of local authorities without consulting regional assemblies. The Venice Commission noted “that the proposed amendments to the Constitution would negatively impact the balance of powers by strengthening the powers of the executive, while weakening both the parliament and, to a greater extent, the judiciary”.

The training was held in the view of enabling the prevention of money laundering. The training programme started in April 2016, under a project implemented by EUROPOL. The banks’ employees were trained for the implementation of the 4th EU Directive on money laundering, which will be soon transposed into the legal system of Montenegro. This Directive foresees an increased scope of control over politically exposed persons (PEP’s) and an expansion of the PEP definition, as well as increased fines for violations of control procedure.

In the process of controlling party funding in electoral campaigns, the APC has discovered a number of irregularities and started procedures against responsible political entities. The APC has initiated misdemeanour procedures against the Democratic Front, the Coalition Ključ (Key), the Social Democrats and the Montenegrin Democratic Union (CDU), for the violation of the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Electoral Campaigns.

Sixteen judges and four court officials have been accused by prosecutors from Moldova’s National Anti-corruption Centre (CNA) of involvement in the “Russian Laundromat”, a money-laundering scheme that has taken an estimated $20 billion from Russia into the European Union. Reporters for OCCRP revealed that between 2010 and 2014, organised criminals in Russia moved dollars through offshore companies, banks, fake loans and proxy agents, before having the process certified as “clean” by judges in Moldova to disperse across Europe.

The €782m of EU aid intended to strengthen public administration in Moldova has had minimal effects, the European Court of Auditors concluded following a report into the EU’s budget support programmes. Hans Gustaf Wessberg, the member of the ECA responsible for the report, explained that the EU “faces significant challenges” in implementing assistance for Moldova, noting that the “combination of political and economic instability, weak governance and public administration significantly reduces the European Commission’s leverage to encourage reform”.

The setting-up of an Observatory for Public Procurement will promote dialogue between public institutions and economic entrepreneurs, while at the same time preventing and detecting frauds in public procurement and enhancing transparency in the procedures, according to the National Anti-Corruption Strategy. This project is foreseen in the 3rd phase of implementation of the strategy (2021-2025).

With the Parliamentary elections approaching, Transparency Maroc expressed its criticism towards the poor accomplishments of public institutions in the fight against corruption. The provisions of the 2011 Constitution, as well as the commitments formulated by the politicians during the previous electoral campaign, have been largely disregarded. The organisation called on all political parties to express a clear political will to eradicate corruption and invited the government to include serious anti-corruption measures in its programme which will then be examined by the new Parliament.
 

The leader of Romania’s secondbiggest party, the Liberals, stepped down after being probed by anti-corruption prosecutors for influence peddling. Vasile Blaga, who managed campaigns that led current President Klaus Iohannis to getting elected, is suspected of receiving about €700,000 in illegal party funding in 2010-2011 from a mayor and a businessman in exchange for contracts with the state and job appointments. While he denies wrongdoing, he resigned after being placed under police supervision and was denied the right to leave the country.

The Chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate points the finger to the Ministry of Finance for not executing confiscation Court orders.

Prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Department (DNA) started the criminal prosecution of former interior minister, Petre Toba. He had allegedly refused to declassify secret documents related to how the Interior Ministry had spent the money allotted to it. He thus blocked the Anticorruption Department’s investigation against several DIPI employees, who have since been charged with embezzlement, abuse of power, and forgery.

Mikhail Slobodin, the head of one of Russia’s largest telecom companies, resigned amidst a corruption investigation into current and former employees of Viktor Vekselberg, one of the country’s richest men. Slobodin, who headed the Russian operations of Amsterdam-based VimpelCom, was a former executive at T Plus, a power company owned by Vekselberg, and resigned after the country’s Investigative Committee announced it was probing allegations that he and other former T Plus executives had paid bribes to regional officials.

 Dmitry Zakharchenko, the acting head of the Interior Ministry's Department for Economic Security and Combating Corruption, was arrested on suspicion of bribery after police found more than $120 million in a raid on his sister’s Moscow flat. Zakharchenko’s arrest was connected with an embezzlement case involving $400 million from Nota-Bank, a financial institution that was stripped of license in November 2015. Following the incident, President Vladimir Putin endorsed the national anticorruption plan for 2016-2017 that requires government bodies to “achieve tangible results in preventing” graft.

A Higher Court has approved the second plea bargain of ex-President of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marović, for the “extended criminal offense abuse of official position by incitement, executed in organized manner”. The plea bargain foresees a prison sentence of two years and fine of €50000 and return of €1.9 million generated from criminal offenses. Marović was arrested in December 2015 after being accused of involvement in suspicious land purchases and construction deals in Budva in Montenegro, for a company belonging to his son.

The IMF Board of Directors has revealed the completion of the fourth and fifth revision of Serbia's current stand-by arrangement, making available a cumulative amount of €761.6 million ($847.9 million) to the country. The IMF said that Serbia’s economic recovery had exceeded expectations, supported by efforts to CoE anti-corruption digest 8 September 2016 strengthen public finances, advance structural reforms, and boost investment confidence. 

According to Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, the government will adopt all necessary measures to eradicate corruption and punish corrupt officials. The Prime Minister has also expressed the need to introduce measures to protect whistleblowers. 

According to a survey conducted by Dragon Capital and the European Business Association, foreign investors believe that the biggest obstacles for investment in Ukraine are widespread corruption (average score – 8.5 points out of 10 possible) and lack of trust in the judiciary (7.5 points). Among the most positive actions that the government of Ukraine has to take to attract foreign investment, businesspeople mentioned relaunching the judiciary by vetting existing members and hiring new judges (average score – 7.6 points out of 10 possible), and the prosecution of large numbers of high-level officials and judges for corruption (7.4 points).

The European Union is preparing a new program to fight corruption for Ukraine, and Denmark has agreed to make important efforts to implement it. The anti-corruption scheme is worth €16 million and will take off on 1 January 2017 spanning three years. It will be based on four pillars: building and developing institutions to fight corruption; strengthening parliamentary oversight; working with local governments; and supporting civil society organisations and investigative journalists, who are already at the forefront of the battle. 

On September 1, Ukraine’s electronic system for income declaration by state officials was amended and relaunched in a step that is expected to increase the country’s economic legitimacy to Western backers. Aimed at eliminating corruption among bureaucrats who understate their earnings and assets, the system was originally launched in mid-August but shut down again due to numerous flaws. Both President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodmyr Groysman have repeatedly praised the system as a vital tool in the fight against corruption. Transparency International Ukraine welcomed the launch, but said there was a danger the programme could prove ineffective.