This document should define the specific rules for a corruption episode signaling in state and private sector. Minister of Local Affairs and National Coordinator against corruption ensured the signalers that protection against vindicate acts as a retaliation shall be provided by the state.

John Kerry met with Albanian Prime Minister as well as opposition leader in order to support the message that the new package of legislation is part of cleaning up Albania, not only so it can make its case to the EU, but also to improve the climate for investments. The Parliament is weighing a major package of reforms, which includes a new anti-corruption agency, modelled after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations.

Police in Tirana will have to wear security cameras in an attempt to prevent bribery, corruption and other abuses. The project is part of the government’s efforts to use new technologies to prevent corruption within the police’s ranks. It is expected to lower the level of bribery among policemen, which was a big concern in the past. 

Operating under the head of state. Boards of Appeal in central and local executive authorities of Azerbaijan were also established, operating under several ministries and state committees.

 In his visit to Lampur, Head of Anti-Corruption Department under the Prosecutor General Kamran Aliyev expressed his confidence that the agreement would play an important role in exchanging experience and information and training specialists.

The objective of this program is to assist the government of Armenia in the implementation of its Anti-Corruption Strategy designed for 2015-2018; it aims to attract high-quality international and/or local technical support for the creation of the "road map" and for the implementation of the anticorruption strategy in priority areas such as education, state income, health and police services.

According to the head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Peter Switalski, Yerevan has no effective programs to combat corruption, and if the country will not effectively fight corruption it cannot develop dynamically. The Council for Fighting Corruption, which has existed for exactly one year, has not taken any real steps, local observers say. As a result of the inaction of the Council and declarative steps of the authorities concerning the fight against corruption, there are risks of political favouritism in business.

The newly published GRECO report notes that corruption remains an important problem for Armenian society. The report specifically looks at the situation with CoE anti-corruption digest 2 February 2016 preventing corruption among parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors.

According to a new GRECO report, parliamentary monitoring and enforcement of anti-corruption measures must be strengthened, since misconduct could trigger punishment at present and the existing bodies overseeing conflicts of interest have crucial flaws regarding their effectiveness. Steps must also be taken to improve the professionalism, integrity and accountability of judges and prosecutors.

 President Milorad Dodik denied accusations from state prosecutor that he had taken a fake €750,000 loan as part of a money laundering scheme. The scandal finds Dodik at a significant turning point. In July 2015 Dodik called for a referendum for the secession of the Serbian entity from Bosnia and Herzegovina and closer ties with Russia.

U.S. senator Wicker has urged Secretary of State John Kerry to take action in response to "worsening corruption" in Bosnia and Herzegovina, saying it is "paralysing" the country's European integration and "putting foreign investment at risk".

According to the President, it is good that the Committee has managed to shift the focus to economic matters. The KGB Chairman noted that the measures they had taken had allowed securing results not only in intelligence and counter-intelligence efforts but also in the protection of economic security and fight against corruption, managing to uncover system problems in various branches of the economy.

Over 120 Czech and Slovak prosecutors, police and judges participated in the program at the Judicial Academy in Kromeriz with four U.S. experts who worked on the Congressman Jefferson case and discovered bundles of cash hidden in his freezer.

According to Transparency International. The biggest problems seem to be the permanently postponed reforms of the judicial system, the system of political parties' financing and the still unfinished project of a register of public management contracts. Indeed, a GRECO compliance report indicates the Czech Republic has fully met only one of the 13 recommendations it had given with the aim to boost the fight against corruption and transparent political financing.

Czech lobbyist Marek Dalik was sentenced to five years in prison and a five-million-crown fine (€185,000) for corruption accompanying the procurement of the Pandur armoured personnel carriers (APCs) for the Czech military.

The eight suspects, including two former ministers, were questioned on fraud allegations but left the court as free people. The Skopje Court said it had formed a council comprised of three judges that will review the complaints and give its decision. If the council rejects the complaints, the Special Prosecution has the right to again seek detention for the suspects, but only once it gathers more evidence. 

On 18-19 February 2016, the Council of Europe and the Georgian High School of Justice conducted a two-day training on “Combating money laundering and terrorist financing” for Georgian judges and assistant judges.

On February 2016, representatives of the Financial Monitoring Service of Georgia (FIU of Georgia) and the State Security and Crisis Management Council participated in a joint session of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Coalition Counter ISIL Finance Group (CIFG) aiming to further mutually reinforcing work to combat the financing of ISIL (Da’esh) and to protect the international financial system from abuse by the terrorist organisation.

“Efforts to eliminate corruption and restore fiscal soundness by revitalising the commitment to limited government have borne fruits. Two years of fiscal consolidation have kept government spending under control and ensured macroeconomic stability”, stated the Heritage Foundation.

In a meeting with the newly-appointed President of the Jordanian AntiCorruption Commission (JACC) and with the Commission’s board, the Prime Minister reiterated the government support to the fight against corruption. He also stressed the importance of JACC’s role, as the eradication of corruption is a key element to ensure the country’s national security and stability. 

Chief State Prosecutor, Aleksandër Lumezi, met Director of Kosovo Tax Administration, Sakip Imeri, to discuss opportunities for expanding cooperation in the area of joint trainings between State Prosecutors and Tax Investigators, regarding the fight against corruption, economic crimes and financial crimes.

The European Parliament’s resolution reiterates its concern at the lack of any significant progress in fighting high-level corruption and organised crime and calls on the Kosovo Anti-Corruption Agency to launch more investigations, and on the prosecution service to follow up on cases referred by the Anti-Corruption Agency.

The Anticorruption Business Council of the Kyrgyz Republic will begin a review of laws in order to reduce the risk of corruption within judicial, fiscal, and law enforcement bodies that affect citizens and business.
 

According to the Head of the Corruption Control and Supervision over Execution of Laws Department Azamat Ibraimov, violations primarily concern procurement, provision of licences and permits. In total, at least 905 criminal cases on corruption crimes were initiated in 2015 and about 308,296 million soms (€3.7 million) have been returned to the state during investigation.
 

The Montenegrin police accused the Special Prosecutor’s Office of illegally arresting senior police officers on suspicion of involvement of organised crime and called out for the Prime Minister to protect them. The statement came after the head of the police department of Organised Crime and Corruption had been arrested following the sudden disappearance of crucial evidence in a case against businessman, Veselin Mujović.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that “Montenegro had already conducted a lot of reforms - which is why it earned its invitation to join the alliance last December -, but it now has to deliver further results”.

On February 25, lawmakers voted in favour of combining an anticorruption office and another agency for special cases as part of judicial reforms the government has promised. The changes, which come into force on 1 August 2015, also limit the powers of the prosecutor general, who will no longer be appointed by parliament, but by the country's president.

The employees are under accusation of providing and charging different amounts of money to expedite actions of City Hall’s representatives on final acceptance of construction works.

Political analysts say the pro-European coalition’s tainted reputation has led to a shift that could see Russia-leaning parties gain power, but, it is corruption, not a European future, that Moldova’s public is moving against.

The arrest of El Makraoui had caused a wave of indignation among social media users who described it as a form of suppression, but the Minister of Justice and Liberties, Mustafa Ramid, sent an official statement to the Public Prosecutor to release him on bail.
 

While the law on the new Anti-Corruption Authority (Instance nationale de probité et de lutte contre la corruption - INPPLC) was adopted in July 2015, the INPPLC has not yet been set up. The recent appointment of Mr Aboudrar, President of the current anti-corruption authority (ICPC), as Ambassador to London may accelerate the establishment of the new Authority.

Anti-corruption prosecutors charged politician Nicolae Păun in two cases of embezzlement and money laundering for a  CoE anti-corruption digest 7 March 2016 project involving EU funds from the Roma Party association. Fellow MP, Doina Tudor was also detained alongside local investor Ilie Carabulea for a separate bribery incident. 

Indicates the National Anticorruption Directorate’s annual report. Some 970 people got final sentences for corruption last year and the acquittal rate dropped to 7.6%, the lowest level ever. The courts also ruled that the state should recover EUR 200 million from those convicted for corruption, according to the DNA chief prosecutor.

The court found Severin guilty on the counts of bribery and influence peddling and convicted him to 3 years and 3 months in jail.

The head of Rusal, one of the world’s largest aluminium companies, criticised the failure of Russian economic policy. He emphasised Russia’s need to fight corruption, reform the judicial system and change fiscal and monetary policy. 

 Erik Kituashvili, who has been publishing investigative films revealing corruption in Russian traffic police, is accused of being a member of an organised crime group that has committed several offences. 

A farm director blames bribe-seeking officials and administrators for deliberately holding his project up: "The bureaucrat who doesn’t get a $10,000 bribe, won’t give permission for a new farm building. That’s how it works in Russia. Everyone knows what’s going on but nobody does anything about it." His views are shared by many, including the government’s business ombudsman, Boris Titov. Last year, Mr Titov estimated that 200,000 Russian businessmen had been jailed by corrupt officials seeking bribes. 

According to a recent analysis by two nongovernmental research centres, little has been done to address corruption in the criminal justice sector, as envisaged by the National Anti-Corruption Strategy. The analysis, covering the 2014-2016 period, notes that in the judiciary alone, only 50% of measures planned have been implemented, while 30% of measures have been postponed. In regards to police, only 10% of actions have been implemented with great majority being postponed due to lack of legislative framework. 

Tunisian research institute, One to One, released the results of its corruption perception survey which it carried out with 1200 participants in May 2015. 50% of respondents considered that businessmen were the most implicated in acts of corruption, while 31% felt that government officials are the first collectors of bribes in Tunisia. When asked about the government’s performance in the fight against corruption, 36% rated their work as “very bad”, while only 3% felt it was “very good”.

 Following the November 2014 Memorandum of Understanding between the Tunisian Ministry of Public Service, Governance and Fight against Corruption with South Korea’s Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, a new project was recently commissioned. South Korea donated 10 million dinars for the modernisation of the electronic platform of complaints, where citizens can file their complaints and report cases of corruption in the Tunisian administration.

The new President of the Tunisian anti-corruption authority (INLUCC), Mr Chawki Tabib, denounced repeatedly the insufficient means and financial resources allocated to INLUCC, in order to effectively fight against corruption. The President estimated at 6,5 million Dinars (€2,9 million) the amount needed by INLUCC for 2016 to fulfil its missions and stressed the importance for the anti-corruption authority to be completely independent.

“All newly created anti-corruption CoE anti-corruption digest 7 February 2016 authorities should suppress any attempts of political corruption by officials, members of parliament or any political leaders strictly and without mercy”, called the Prime Minister in a televised address. He also announced that the 50 largest public companies will have new, independent and politically unbiased heads. 

EU Ambassador Tombinski welcomed the adoption of the legislation on asset recovery and management office and on assets seizure and special confiscation. He, however, expressed criticism concerning two other laws: “The draft Law on Prosecution still contains too many discretional powers of the Prosecutor General” while the “new Law on e-declarations is disappointing and not in line with anti-corruption commitments undertaken by the Ukrainian leadership”.

Director of the national anticorruption bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk says that NABU officers should be given the right to tap telephones and other communication lines. President Poroshenko opposes tapping as an infringement on human rights.