Unprecedented seizure of cocaine in Albania. Albanian police seized 613 kilos of cocaine hidden in a container of bananas that arrived in the country from Colombia, hailing it as the Balkan nation’s biggest seizure of the drug ever and as a triumph for its law enforcement efforts. According to police sources, the drugs were hidden in the vehicle’s chassis and weren’t detected by the scanner. The General Director of the Albanian State Police Mr Ardi Veliu stated that the cocaine shipment, with a market value of 180 million euros, had arrived at the port of Durres via Italy and Malta 10 days ago and had been closely watched by law enforcement bodies. “The Albanian authorities are still investigating with their foreign partners to discover all the links and persons involved in this criminal activity,” Veliu told reporters.

The Delegation of the European Union in Tirana congratulated Albanian authorities for the successful operation encouraging them to step up the fight against organized crime even more.

Corruption, business, migration and ANPP in EU-Armenia Partnership Priorities. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Edward Nalbandian and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini signed the EU-Armenia Partnership Priorities in Brussels on 21 February. According to the document, the fight against corruption will be at the heart of administrative reform and the country’s effort to reinforce the rule of law. Cooperation will focus both on strenthening the anticorruption bodies and reviewing legislation, in particular the public procurement system, the asset declaration system to ensure its proper implementation, and the management of public functions where economic and other stakes are highest (procurement, customs, permits) with a view to ensuring high ethical standards and avoid conflict of interest.

“Anti-corruption laws are being adopted but their implementation is still a problem”, Jam News refers to the recently published Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI ) where Armenia ranked 107th out of the 180 countries listed in it. Armenia ranked among countries such as Ethiopia, “the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and Vietnam. Armenia’s score has improved by two points compared to the previous year. However, according to Varuzhan Hoktanyan, Executive Director of Transparency International Armenia, it doesn’t mean that Armenia achieved any considerable success in combating corruption nor that its rate had reduced. The expert stressed the need for setting up a specialized anti-corruption agency for better combating corruption. Hoktantyan noted that there are countries with low corruption rates that don’t have such an agency. Where there is a political will there is no need for such an agency. However, international best practices show that political will is a mandatory, though insufficient condition.

Azerbaijan elaborating strategy for civil service development. The "Civil Service Development Strategy for 2019-2025" will be developed in Azerbaijan. The strategy will seek to support the institutional reforms aimed at continuous professional development of civil servants, improved personnel policy in civil service, the development of an electronic public service, and establishment of an advanced incentive system for civil servants.

Parliament approves draft envisaging new penalties in fight against terrorism. According to the draft amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses approved by the Azerbaijani Parliament on 13 February, not only entities subject to financial monitoring and other persons involved in the fight against terrorism financing, but also legal entities, individuals and government agencies, that don’t take necessary measures or fail to comply with the decision to freeze assets of the financial monitoring body will be subject to administrative liability. It was noted that the draft was prepared

Azerbaijan Anti-Corruption Academy involves CoE certified national trainers to deliver trainings for civil servants. Azerbaijan Anti-Corruption Academy continues to deliver trainings on "Ethics and Anti-Corruption Technique" for civil servants in Baku and the regions of Azerbaijan. The trainings continue to be delivered by certified national trainers, who have completed the Training-of-Trainers courses within the CoE/EU Joint Project on “Strengthening capacities to fight and prevent corruption in Azerbaijan”.

The National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) publishes a roadmap of the main objectives and strategic initiatives for 2018. Among the stated objectives is to increase the transparency of the ownership structure of banks and non-banking financial institutions. According to the NBRB, the planning system includes setting the main objectives for the current year to enable favourable conditions for sustainable inclusive economic growth through the quantitative and qualitative development of the monetary sector, banking, and payment system.

Belarus continues to improve on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2017. Notably, the country’s CPI score (44) is up by four points since last year, displaying continued improvement on CPI since 2014 (31), however still falling below midpoint on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

OSCE presents report identifying judicial shortcomings in processing corruption cases. The report “Trial Monitoring of Corruption Cases in BiH: A First Assessment” was compiled by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, within the framework of the project Assessing Needs of Judicial Response to Corruption through Monitoring of Criminal Cases and with the support of the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. The report represents the first assessment of issues negatively impacting the quality and effectiveness of the judicial response to corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina based on trial monitoring. It is based on the observation of 67 completed corruption cases in the period between January 2010 and September 2017.

Bulgaria adopts new anti-corruption legislation. The New Anti-corruption and Forfeiture of Assets Act (AFAA) entered into force in Bulgaria, replacing two existing pieces of legislation – the Prevention of Conflict of Interest Act, and the Forfeiture of Illegally Acquired Assets Act. In addition, the AFAA creates a single commission to enforce the law from the various commissions that existed before. The Anti-corruption and Forfeiture of Illegally Acquired Assets Commission has wide ranging powers under the AFAA. A collective body of five members appointed by parliament, the Commission is entitled to request assistance from the Prosecution Office, National Revenue Agency, Customs Office, Supreme Judicial Council, Ministry of the Interior, and various law enforcement bodies.

Czech Republic moves up in corruption perception rankings. The Czech Republic has slightly improved its standing in watchdog Transparency Internationals’ annual Corruption Perception Index for 2017. Under TI’s criteria, the country picked up 57 points compared to 55 in 2016. The country has moved to 42nd spot in the worldwide rankings, but it still lags behind the EU average by eight points. In Europe, the Czech Republic climbed to 18th spot from last year’s 19th, but still found itself behind all of the Baltic States and Poland. Transparency International’s annual Index has rated countries by perceived levels of corruption since 1995 on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being very corrupt and 100 being very clean.

Georgia to criminalise aiding so-called thieves-in-law. The Georgian authorities are planning to heighten penalties for membership in criminal groups and to criminalise cooperation with and providing assistance to the so called thieves-in-law or the criminal bosses. The draft law, initiated by the Interior Ministry, was endorsed by the Government on February 2 and submitted to the Parliament for approval.

Independent Agency to Investigate Crimes Committed by Law Enforcement Officers to be set up in Georgia. The Government of Georgia endorsed at its session a draft law setting up the Service of State Inspector, an independent investigative agency for crimes committed by law enforcement officers and public officials. The new agency will be established in 2019, and will replace the Office of Personal Data Protection Inspector.

Georgia’s ranking in Corruption Perception Index 2017 points to the need to speed up reforms. Georgia is ranked 46th among 180 countries with the score of 56 points in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2017 published by Berlin-based Transparency International Secretariat. Georgia ranks highest in the region of Eastern Europe (not including the members of the European Union) and Central Asia. However, Georgia’s ranking worsened compared to the previous year although (based on the survey methodology) a decrease of the score by one point is considered insignificant. The stability of Georgia’s position in CPI over the past several years (and its worsening in 2017) indicates that, after Georgia made a certain progress, its government needs to step up its anti-corruption efforts.

Jordan ranks 57th out of 176 countries in public sector corruption. Jordan has scored 48 out of 100 in the 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index. Although Jordan’s score dropped since 2015, it remained the same in 2017 as in 2016. In terms of ranking, Jordan fell to the 59th place out of 180 countries, while in 2016 Jordan was ranked 57th out of 176 countries. 

Jordan reaffirms commitment to countering financing of Daesh. On 11 February 2018, Jordan hosted the 9th meeting of the Counter Daesh Finance Group with the aim of assessing accomplishments made in fighting Daesh and exchange expertise among concerned countries to dry up the sources of Daesh funding. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Global Coalition to Counter Daesh. Governor of the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) and Chairman of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ziyad Farzi underlined during the meeting that depriving the terrorist group of the sources of funding and the use of oil resources is of special importance.

Corruption Perceptions Index 2017. This year Kosovo* improved its ranking of three points with a score of 39 since last year being one of three countries in the region that scored higher in 2017 than it did in 2012. However, given that one-year change is not statistically relevant, the TI regional analysis emphasises that overall corruption remains high in Kosovo* and it still has a long way to go to halt corruption.

Evaluating and addressing regulatory challenges related to virtual money. The Executive Board of the Central Bank (CBK) has established a permanent body for evaluating and addressing regulatory challenges related to virtual money. In its capacity of an advisory group, this body will monitor and analyse international developments on the regulation of virtual money with the aim to prepare corresponding recommendations for the CBK decision-making bodies. The CBK has been actively engaged in addressing issues related to virtual money, by analysing relevant developments, contacting responsible authorities in European countries, and communicating with the public either through its specific statements or of its officials’ statements (a recent public warning was issued in January 2018). The CBK continues to draw attention of local entities regarding the risks for financial losses that may incur from investing in virtual money and on other potential implications.

Security Council decision on the fight against corruption. On 13 February 2018, the President of Kyrgyz Republic Sooronbai Jeenbekov signed a decision of the Security Council of the Kyrgyz Republic "On actual measures to combat corruption in judicial, supervisory and law enforcement agencies of the Kyrgyz Republic”. The decision aims at eradicating corruption and eliminating its causes in law enforcement, supervisory and judicial bodies through a number of measures. These include enhancing the mandate of law enforcement, supervisory and judicial bodies and improving the public trust therein;  ensuring the transparency and accountability, good governance and rule of law; improving anti-corruption coordination; improving the protection of private property; revising the personnel policy, assets declarations, the code of ethics for law enforcement officers and courts, etc.

Money Laundering and tax evasion over 70 million Moldovan Lei. At least 15 persons from Chisinau and other parts of the country are suspected of forming part of a criminal group that laundered 65 million lei and avoided paying almost 6 million lei taxes. Five members were arrested, while eight were questioned. Another two persons are investigated as suspects. The scheme also involves agricultural producers who accepted the services of the suspects in order not to pay taxes. The criminal group falsified documents for the purchase of agricultural products. For the delivered goods, they transferred money to the bank accounts of intermediaries, who collected it from ATMs and transmitted it to the suspects who, for their part, passed it on to agricultural producers through other persons. For the provided services, the members of the group retained a commission of 9% of the value of the transaction. The suspects operated in Chisinau through three banks. The investigation continues, run by the Prosecution Office for Organised Crime and Special Cases. The organisers face five to ten years in jail for tax evasion and up to six years for money laundering.

20 people arrested for medicines selling scheme. Twenty persons (12 employees of health facilities of Chisinau, Cahul and Edinet, as well as eight representatives of pharmaceutical companies) were arrested on suspicion of a scheme between agents of pharmaceutical companies and doctors of medical institutions to promote their products. According to the National Anticorruption Centre (NAC), the representatives of pharmaceutical companies persuaded doctors to prescribe only selected drugs. For their promotion services, the health professionals were regularly awarded money, goods or sponsorships for trips abroad. The investigation continues so as to identify all those involved. The doctors face up to ten years in jail, while the employees of pharmaceutical companies up to six years behind bars.

National Bank of Moldova warns about cryptocurrency. The National Bank of Moldova reiterated the warning issued earlier about the risks of cryptocurrencies: virtual coins or currency. The risk of losing the invested sums remains high given the technical characteristics of this good, its high volatility and lack of regulations. These virtual assets do not have guarantee of being accepted as legal by national authorities, so the holders may be unable to exchange them. This market remains in fact unregulated and prone to fluctuations.

High Court confirmed indictment on corruption charges against ex-Mayor of Podgorica brought by Special Prosecution. The former long-time mayor of Podgorica, Miomir Mugosa is suspected of embezzling 6.7m euros in the ‘’Carine’’ case, by selling the land owned by the municipality to a local company for 2.5 million euros, which is several times less than the estimated value. The investigation against Mugosa was initiated after the experts made an estimate of the embezzled funds in 2007 in a deal that was made by the municipality.

Minister of European Affairs steps down from his position amidst conflict of interest allegations. The Minister of European Affairs of the Republic of Montenegro Aleksandar Pejovic has resigned late February 2018 from his position in light of the conflict of interest finding made by the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (APC). According to the APC, Pejovic has been performing two public functions for an extended period of time thereby accruing significant income, all in violation of the Law on the Prevention of Corruption, the Law on Foreign Affairs and the Constitution of the Republic of Montenegro. Mr Pejovic plans to contest the said decision in court.    

Government crackdown on corruption. As the Moroccan government accelerates anti-corruption efforts, a dozen officials are being prosecuted for corruption charges, as revealed Head of Government Saad Eddine El Othmani.

Morocco makes important strides in tackling corruption. Morocco has improved just slightly by nine places in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2017, compared to 2016, as the Government is making efforts to combat administrative corruption, abuse of power and public funds mismanagement in the country. Out of 180 surveyed countries, Morocco ranked 81st with 40 points, compared to its rank at 90th with 37 points in 2016.

A new anti-corruption NGO called “Stop Corruption Movement” is launched. On 22 February 2018, a group of civil and juridical activists announced the launch of a watchdog body called “Stop Corruption Movement”, in order to keep pace with political, legal and institutional transformations, and also to complement Morocco’s social reforms.

GRECO visits Romania to conduct urgent evaluation of reform of the judiciary.  A delegation from the Group of States against Corruption of the Council of Europe (GRECO) visited Romania on 21 and 22 February as part of an ad hoc urgent evaluation concerning the recently proposed or adopted legislation in the area of the judiciary from the perspective of the fight against corruption and of the compliance of Romania with earlier recommendations by GRECO on this topic. GRECO’s delegation met with government representatives, parliamentarians, legal and judicial professionals, NGOs, representatives of international institutions present in Romania and other relevant actors. The delegation will prepare a report, with specific recommendations, for discussion at GRECO’s next plenary meeting. The delegation stressed the importance of the authorities taking GRECO’s report into account, once adopted, as they continue working on their proposed or adopted legislation. At the same time, the GRECO delegation invited the authorities, once again, to consider requesting the opinion of the Venice Commission on the broader judicial reform package.

Superior Council of Magistracy rejects the request to dismiss the Chief Anti-corruption Prosecutor.  The Superior Council of Magistracy decided on 27 February 2018 to reject the request of the Minister of Justice to approve the dismissal of country's Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi. This is an advisory opinion and the final decision will be made by president Klaus Iohannis. During the public meeting, Kovesi said that the allegations in the evaluation report presented by the Minister of Justice are unreal and lack any kind of evidence. She added that under her mandate, the Romanian National Anti-corruption Agency had the best results in its history.

Russia ranks 135thout of 180 in Transparency International’s World Corruption Index. For the third year in a row, in the ranking of perception of corruption, compiled by Transparency International, Russia received 29 points out of 100. According to TI, corruption cases against high-profile officials, such as the former Minister for Economic Development Alexei Ulyukaev and former governors Nikita Belykh and Alexandr Khoroshavin, did not impress the experts enough to register progress in the fight against corruption in Russia.

Dagestan government dissolved amid major corruption investigation. High-ranking officials of the Dagestani government, including its acting head Abdusamad Gamidov, acting deputy heads and other individuals were apprehended on charges of embezzling funds, allocated from the budget to the Republic of Dagestan to implement social programmes in the region. According to the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, “this is not a political crisis but rather a continuation of work of the law enforcement bodies”.

Business climate in Russia is viewed as in pre-crisis 2013 by foreign business. According to the survey conducted by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the agency FleishmanHillard Vanguard/KG “Orta”, the number of respondents noting the positive dynamic in Russian business climate amounted to 33% in 2017. At the same time, the number of respondents viewing corruption in government as the key factor hindering business development in Russia almost doubled. Removing administrative barriers, ensuring transparency and lowering taxes for responsible entrepreneurs were named among measures that could improve business environment in Russia. 

Serbia identified as jurisdiction that has strategic AML/CFT deficiencies. As part of its on-going review of compliance with the AML/CFT standards, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) identified Serbia, along with Syria, Iraq and Yemen, as jurisdictions that have strategic AML/CFT deficiencies. The European Commission will suggest to the European Parliament already in March to put Serbia on a “blacklist” of countries that jeopardize the European system of finance, because it is already on the list of the FATF.

Juncker’s visit to Western Balkans to discuss EU Strategy. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker completed a Western Balkan tour to promote the EU's new strategy for the region. Among the six countries, the commission considers Serbia and Montenegro as current front-runners toward accession and the new strategy says they could be allowed in by 2025 if they meet all the conditions. All countries still have many obstacles to overcome before joining the bloc, including regarding corruption, the rule of law, and relations with their neighbors.

Serbia does not improve or implement Anti-Corruption laws. In the surveys on perception of corruption Serbia stagnated last year because there was no significant improvement of the law and the existing ones were not implemented, anti-corruption watchdog organisation Transparency Serbia (TS) stated. This organisation concluded that the state should implement “radical measures” in order to fight the corruption. According to Corruption Perception Index for 2017, Serbia dropped five places in 2016 and it ranked 77 on the list of 180 countries and territories.

Corruption in Anti-corruption. The audit conducted by the Public Revenue Office on the payments of salaries and other benefits in the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption for 2016 detected irregularities in payroll and business trips with the biggest abuses being related to travel costs. The audit concluded that the members of the Commission were paid travel expenses for coming to sessions based on false reimbursement travel orders.  Some of them never came to work, but only attended commission sessions. In some cases they even submitted several travel orders for the same day for being on a business trip abroad and for attending the commission session at the same time.

Tunisia moves up one spot to 74th in Corruption Perceptions index 2017. Tunisia was ranked 74th out of 180 countries with 42 points, ahead of four Maghreb countries. Morocco was ranked 81st with 40 points, Algeria 122 with a score of 33 points, Mauritania 143rd with 28 points and Libya 171st with 17 points.

Tunisia and others added to EU money laundering blacklist. The European Parliament has approved the addition of Tunisia, Sri Lanka, and Trinidad and Tobago to the European Commission's blacklist of third countries thought to be at high risk of money laundering.

GRECO wants to support Tunisia in fight against corruption. The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) want to support Tunisia and its government in the fight against corruption through concrete actions on the ground to fight effectively against this phenomenon,” GRECO Executive Secretary, Gianluca Esposito said during his visit to the country on 19 February. His visit was aimed primarily at trying to make progress with the Tunisian authorities to ensure that Tunisia becomes a member of GRECO and “both parties can move from the discussion phase to the phase of working together”.

Ukraine parliament backs bill on anti-corruption court. Ukraine’s parliament approved in the first reading a draft law to create an anti-corruption court, a step towards fulfilling requirements for a long-delayed loan tranche from the International Monetary Fund. President Petro Poroshenko submitted the bill to parliament in December 2017, but Ukraine’s foreign backers have expressed concern that the legislation is not in line with recommendations from the Venice Commission. The Ukrainian authorities have said the bill will be amended before its second and final reading to ensure it is fully in line with international norms.

SAPO head: Anti-Corruption Court unlikely to start work this year. Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) Nazar Kholodnytsky believes the Anti-Corruption Court is unlikely to start its work in 2018. “I’m not sure it will start working by the end of the year. On the contrary, I’m sure that it won’t work,” Kholodnytsky stated. According to him, the law on the Anti-Corruption Court could be adopted in March in the second reading. “But to pass the law and create the court, hire judges and provide their work are different things,” Kholodnytsky said.

Ukraine most corrupt country in Europe after Russia. Ukraine ranked 130th among 180 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2017 released by Transparency International. Ukraine improved its last year’s result by one point and got 30 points out of 100 possible. Next to Ukraine stand Gambia, Iran, Myanmar and Sierra Leone. Ukraine was able to achieve a slight improvement due to the fact that in 2017 the Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities (Special Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office and National Anti-corruption Bureau) forwarded to courts first corruption-related cases where the suspects were high-ranking officials.