The Albanian Constitutional Court rejected the Parliament’s request to cease the suspension of the vetting law. The reformed law on vetting judges and prosecutors was suspended in October following the request of the opposition, led by the Democratic Party, with the Constitutional Court sending the law to the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission to obtain an opinion on the legislation’s compatibility with the Albanian constitution. The implementation of the vetting law is widely seen as a key element for the opening of EU accession negotiations, while reformists also argue that this could increase the trust of citizens in the judiciary.

A new €3 million anti-corruption project financed by the European Union was launched in Tirana. Through the EU’s twinning programme known as “Support to the formulation, coordination and implementation of anti-corruption policies”, two EU Member States would enter into a partnership with the beneficiary country, in order to assist the state administration in the preparation of its EU membership. The aim of such an instrument is to achieve results through peer to peer activities. Albania’s twins in the current project are Austria and Germany, who would provide their support over the next 29 months to fight against corruption.

The President signed a decree approving the Action Plan for 2017–2019 on the Fight against Legalisation of Criminally Obtained Funds and Other Properties and Financing of Terrorism. The decree tasks a series of bodies including the Ministries of Justice, Finance, Internal Affairs, Labour and Social Protection, to submit their annual reports and action plans electronically to the Cabinet of Ministers and the Commission on Combatting Corruption (CCC). The Cabinet of Ministers and the CCC are subsequently expected to regularly analyse and inform the President about the state of implementation of the action plans.

The amendments include two new articles that concern the provision of information about corruption offences. As suggested in the changes, the state and municipal bodies shall assign a relevant senior official or structural body to receive and register information on corruption offences from the employees. The amendments also deliver further assurances regarding confidentiality and state protection to persons who provide information on corruption.

According to the latest Transparency International Report “People and Corruption: Europe and Central Asia”, more than 35% of Armenian citizens that were questioned had responded that “corruption/bribery was one of the three biggest problems that its government should address”. Armenia is currently ranked 95th out of 168 countries that were evaluated in Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), with hardly any progress recorded over the past decade. 

The Armenian Government has adopted amendments to the Criminal Code that introduce illicit enrichment as a criminal CoE anti-corruption digest 2 November 2016 offence. According to new rules laid out by the Minister of Justice Arpine Hovannisian, an official whose wealth exceeds their annual salaries by at least 5 million drams ($10,500) will have to substantiate this discrepancy or will otherwise be subject to prosecution.  

According to the latest report of the Council of Europe’s Committee for Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), corruption is still visible as one of the major problems in the Armenian prison system. The CPT has called upon authorities to “step up their efforts to combat this phenomenon”.

Local authorities stated that a working group will draft a plan for addressing the issue of corruption in primary and high schools, in order to teach students what corruption is and its negative effects on society as a whole. Although the measure is still under consideration, the Education Ministry considers that students should learn the causes, forms and consequences of corruption so they can develop values which resist the phenomenon.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s former wartime Interior Minister, Alija Delimustafić, was detained together with at least 12 other suspects on the same charges. Prosecutors also announced that two more people were wanted over the case, including a former judge at Sarajevo’s Municipal Court, Lejla Fazlagić. Authorities allege that the former Minister was the leader of the criminal group, which included lawyers and municipal clerks and was responsible for illegal zoning in Sarajevo.

In their report titled “Fighting Corruption in the West Balkans and Turkey: Priorities for Reform”, the organisation stated that there remained a strong distrust between prosecutors’ offices, courts and law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, Bosnia’s four autonomous legal systems were noted to have made inter-institutional cooperation even more challenging. Other issues identified in the report were insufficient institutional harmonisation, inconsistent application of laws and unjustified political interference. 

The number of corruption crimes in Belarus has dropped this year, stated the Prosecutor General, Alexander Konyuk, during a press conference in Gomel. He revealed that there were approximately more than 1,280 corruption crimes and delinquencies registered in Belarus between January and October 2016, 110 less than during the same period in 2015. He added that the prosecution service were now looking into accounts receivables of Belarusian commercial entities, and suggested that 70% of the cases involving them were created using corruption schemes. 

During the Plenary Meeting of the Eurasian group on combating money laundering and financing of terrorism (EAG) in New Delhi, the participants in the meeting commended Belarus for the considerable progress it has made in eliminating problems related to money-laundering, financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In view of this progress, the EAG and FATF (Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering) agreed to stop monitoring Belarus for compliance of the national legislation with the AML/CFT international standards.

Topics discussed at the hearing on November 3, will include the facilitation of the accession of Belarus to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Specifically, the results of two country-specific projects which were carried out in Belarus under the Programmatic Cooperation Framework will be discussed, in addition to 13 other regional initiatives in which Belarus takes part. 

The punishment for supporting terrorism in the Czech Republic will become stricter from February 2017, following an amendment to the Criminal Code. The present Czech legal order punishes the financing of terrorism primarily through the crime of a terrorist attack. However, based on the demands of international organisations, the financing of terrorism and its promotion will now become separate criminal acts. The financing of terrorism will consequently be punished with up to 12 years in prison and the forfeiture of property.

In their latest report, the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) called on the Czech authorities to make reforms to strengthen the prevention of corruption among parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors. GRECO specifically called on the authorities to increase the transparency of the legislative process. In the absence of any lobbying regulations, it recommended introducing rules for members of parliament on how to interact with third parties seeking to influence the legislative process and that such interactions be made more transparent. At the same time, GRECO called for more effective supervision and enforcement of the rules in practice.

Transparency International revealed that it was concerned with the limited cooperation between the prosecution and police in “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. Another anti-graft measure recommended in their report on the Western Balkans, asks for the country to ensure full implementation of the principle of the merit-based appointment and promotion of judges in order to strengthen the independence, impartiality and integrity of the judiciary. Currently, appointments of members of the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption and the selection and promotion of judges are politicised, according to the report. 

The Special Prosecutor’s Office announced that it was opening a new case called “Target”, to deal with illegal wiretapping conducted in the period from 2008 to 2015 by the Administration of Security and Counterintelligence. The total number of telephone numbers that were followed in the period amounted to over twenty thousand, and also included the numbers of people who were not targeted by illegal surveillance. The Special Prosecutor also revealed that illegal interception of communication had allegedly continued even after the renowned scandal during 2016.

The report stressed that only 12% of the Georgian population named corruption/bribery as one of the three major problems that the country was facing. However, the report also said Georgia’s population was not happy with the Government’s activities against corruption and they also had low awareness on how they could personally act against facts of corruption. Following the report, the local branch, Transparency International Georgia, recommended the creation of a strong anti-corruption agency that would be “absolutely free” from political influences.

The report seeks to encompass a new style of assessment. It focuses on key developments and reform efforts and outlines the short and medium-term strategic priorities agreed between the EU and Georgia, including issues such as the fight against corruption and public administration reform. The report will subsequently be produced annually, and is in line with the strategic priorities agreed between the EU and Georgia under the Association Agreement which fully entered into force on 1 July 2016.

In November, the Council of Europe and the Georgian Bar Association organised a training session on anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CFT) compliance for lawyers, as a part of the ongoing EU-CoE Programmatic Cooperation Framework (PCF) in the Eastern Partnership Countries. Participants familiarised themselves with relevant international and local AML/CTF requirements, most frequent AML/CFT typologies and red flags relevant for lawyers. Furthermore they discussed how to observe AML/CFT rules without violating client secrecy and legal professional privilege. A separate two-day asset recovery training took place the following week for Georgian prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, with the training aimed at improving local practices by discussing tools and good practices in other countries which could be adapted for use in Georgia.

 In a visit to Australia, King Abdullah II signed an agreement for Jordan to partner with Australia in combatting money laundering and terrorism financing. A press release stated that the two nations would stand together in rejecting those who seek to impose their world views on others through division and violence.

The Jordan Integrity and AntiCorruption Commission (JIACC) Director pledged to “create a revolution” in the work of the JIACC to fight corruption in Jordan. Mohammad Allaf mentioned that they were preparing to formulate a ten-year National Strategy of Integrity and Anti-Corruption that will commence on 1 January 2017. He added that he was hopeful that this would create “a revolution that will help reshape public opinion and help rebuild the lost trust of the public with the government and its institutes by fighting pressing matters such as corruption and nepotism”. 

Details of a major tax fraud in Kosovo* were revealed by BIRN Kosovo's TV show “Jeta ne Kosove”, after it broadcasted the first episode of a trilogy on “Organised Tax Theft”, revealing how an estimated €25 million went
missing. Murat Mehmeti, team leader of Kosovo's* Tax Investigations Unit, who formerly worked for the Kosovo* Police for ten years, revealed how over 300 Kosovar businesses claimed big tax deductions by filing fake invoices issued by shell companies. It was further noted that many of these businesses shared a single accountant.

In an interview given to Radio Evropa e Lire, Shaip Havolli, the new Director of the Kosovo* Anti Corruption Agency said that there was an active plan to review the overall legal framework in order to be more efficient in the fight against corruption. He further stated that a joint European Commission and Council of Europe project against Economic Crime in Kosovo* - PECK II was in the process of revising the legal basis of the Anti-Corruption Agency. 

According to the EC Report, Kosovo* is at an “early stage” in the fight against organised crime. The report added that gaps in the legislation remain and enforcement needs to be improved, in particular for money laundering, confiscation and seizure of assets, and financial investigation. It further added that undue influence over investigations and the lack of strategic political commitment hampered the fight against organised crime. 

The Kyrgyz Parliament adopted in its third reading a draft law “On the protection of persons who reported corruption offences”. As per the text, the draft provides for monetary compensation to whistleblowers who reported corruption cases – more precisely for a reward of 30% of the damage avoided by the State. The member of the Kyrgyz Parliament who initiated this draft legislation, Aida Salyanova, stated that it will only deal with State and Municipal Employees. The bill will enter into force after the Kyrgyz President signs it.

The President Almazbek Atambayev declared that the State Security Service had obtained documents from the government of Belize that his political rival Omurbek Tekebayev, along with two others, was set to benefit from a sale of assets by an offshore company, which was believed to be owned by the family of former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The two other suspects are members of Tekebayev’s Ata Meken party.

The third report on the work of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) for 2016 was published in November, with the Agency stating that remarkable results were achieved in all areas of of its jurisdiction. The most relevant results are the increased number of controls in the areas of financing of political entities and electoral campaigns, asset declarations, conflict of interest, and whistleblower protection, alongside with the increased number of initiated and completed misdemeanor procedures and increased amount of enforced sanctions.

A high-level Joint Launching Conference took place in Podgorica to mark the start of the implementation of the European Union and Council of Europe’s Horizontal Facility Action against Economic Crime in Montenegro. Aivo Orav, the Ambassador of the European Union to Montenegro, underlined the timeliness of the project and stressed its importance in light of the priorities of the latest EC Progress Report. The event served as a platform to present the Action to stakeholders, including beneficiary institutions, representatives of the international community and the civil society with whom the Action will work during the implementation phase. A Steering Committee meeting subsequently followed the launching event.

A month and a half after elections, the Montenegrin opposition still refuses to recognise the results of October’s general election, alleging vote-rigging and have continued to boycott the Parliament. The biggest opposition party, the Democratic Front, has planned a new round of demonstrations from December along with the civic coalition Key, the Democrats and the Social Democratic Party, claiming that the polls were organised in the context of a coup attempt and marked by numerous irregularities.

According to the TI Global Corruption Barometer 2016 survey, citizens in Moldova are the most concerned by corruption in Europe, with 67 percent of respondents rating it as one of the greatest issues facing their society. In Moldova, 76 percent of respondents believe that their parliamentary representatives are highly corrupt. The frequency of bribe paying in Moldova is at 42 percent.

Socialist candidate Igor Dodon beat his pro-European challenger, Maia Sandu, at the Moldovan presidential elections, taking over 54% of the vote. Amongst other reasons, the result also draws back to the 2014 banking scandal involving the looting of $1 billion, which led to Moldovans believing that members of the pro-EU elite were complicit to the crime. Despite this, Prime Minister Pavel Filip claims Moldova is still firmly on a pro-EU trajectory, and has seen Brussels offer trade perks in exchange for political commitments to reform and fight corruption.

The first Instance Court of Marrakech condemned a municipal counsellor in Harbil to 7 months of prison for bribery. The  CoE anti-corruption digest 8 November 2016 investigation was launched following the complaints of two citizens who had been requested a bribe by the counsellor, in exchange for the signature of administrative documents. The counsellor was later caught by the police in the act of receiving a bribe.

 A joint investigation team from France, Belgium and the Netherlands dismantled and arrested 36 suspects of a moneylaundering ring which was laundering the proceeds of drug trafficking in Europe into Morocco. The criminals were using a Hawala system of unofficial financial channels to leave no evidence of the money transfers, accumulating over €300 million up to date. 

The Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) successfully dismantled an international criminal organisation dedicated to computer fraud, forgery and money laundering. As a result of the operation, supported by Eurojust and Europol, 64 suspects were brought to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for hearings, while 12 others have been detained. The criminal organisation was formed in 2015 and it is estimated to have obtained €4.5 million in fraud. Also, its members are suspected to have opened approximately 230 bank accounts abroad and 120 bank accounts in Romania.

According to the prosecutors, Ana Maria Pătru accepted two
substantial bribes between 2007 and 2015, in exchange for facilitating contracts between the head of an IT company and the Minister of Economy, and to help the company obtain and carry out future contracts. Furthermore, the IT equipment obtained for the elections are also under examination. Following the accusations, Pătru submitted her resignation.  

 The Council of Europe’s first Steering Committee meeting for the “Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs from Corrupt Practices at the Municipal Level in the Russian Federation - PRECOP II” project took place in Strasbourg. The project officially started in October 2016 with the inception phase set to last until 31 March 2017, funded by a voluntary contribution from the UK Government in the amount of £300,000. The overall duration of the project is 36 months with a total budget of €2,500,000. A follow up to the project PRECOP RF, PRECOP II will focus on addressing corruption at the municipal level in selected geographic regions of the Russian Federation. 

 In regard to incriminations and transparency of party funding, the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption monitoring body GRECO concluded that the Russian Federation had now implemented satisfactorily or dealt with in a satisfactory manner eleven of the twenty-one recommendations contained in the Third Round Evaluation Report, while the other ten recommendations have been partly implemented. GRECO positively evaluated the introduction of the concept of third party beneficiaries in the bribery provisions and welcomed the submission to the Russian Parliament of a new draft legislation aimed at strengthening liability for corruption. At the same time, GRECO says, the CoE anti-corruption digest 9 November 2016 recent reform of the corruption-related provisions of the Russia’s Penal Code is “a significant step backwards compared to the previous draft legislation.” 

Ulyukayev stands accused of soliciting a $2 million bribe for approving the takeover of state oil company Bashneft by another state oil giant Rosneft. If convicted of bribery, Ulyukayev could face between 8 and 15 years in jail. Ulyukayev denied the charges in court, describing his arrest as “an act of provocation against a state official”. On the same day, President Vladimir Putin dismissed him of his duties as Minister. In late November, Putin appointed Maxim Oreshkin as new Minister of Economic Development. 

The EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, noted that Serbia had taken “major steps toward its strategic goal of EU membership by opening four very significant chapters”. He subsequently called for the strengthening of the rule of law and the normalisation of relations with Kosovo*, for further progress to be recorded. Hahn added that the strengthening the rule of law would include continued efforts in the fight against organised crime and corruption. 

The EC 2016 Progress Report for Serbia notes that anti-corruption efforts have yet to yield meaningful results as the existing institutional setup is not acting as a sufficient deterrent for corruption practices. The report also highlighted the poor track record of investigations, prosecutions, and adjudications at various levels. 

 The Tunisian Parliament has adopted an organic law setting up the Economic and Financial Judiciary Unit (Pole). The establishment of the Unit is considered a major step in the fight against corruption and economic crime. Nevertheless, several parliamentarians criticised the lack of clarity in the provisions of the law related to the cases under the Pole’s jurisdiction. The law refers, in particular, to “complex offences”, leaving a margin of discretion and uncertainty as to the cases under the Pole’s jurisdiction. 

The President of the Tunisian Anti-Corruption Authority (INLUCC) announced that, as of November 2016, the Authority had transferred 120 dossiers to the judicial authorities. The majority of the dossiers were related to appropriation of public funds, irregularities in public competitions, recruitment procedures, and cases of bribery. The INLUCC President has also requested the Government to ensure that INLUCC has all the necessary logistic and material resources to carry out its tasks. 

Transparency International's latest report “People and Corruption: Europe and Central Asia” shows that Ukraine continues to experience severe corruption problems, and lags behind other European countries in terms of its fight against bribery. A comparatively high 86% of Ukrainian respondents felt that their governments had failed to curb corruption, acknowledging that there was a widespread culture of bribery.

The functional independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is key to progress in the fight against corruption in Ukraine, stated representatives of International Monetary Fund, Thanos CoE anti-corruption digest 10 November 2016 Arvanitis (European Department Deputy Director) and Ron Van Rooden (Chief of the IMF mission to Ukraine). The IMF mission expressed support to the NABU’s actions, and underlined that the effectiveness of the fight against corruption still remained one of the key indicators for the Fund, while appraising the level of cooperation between Ukraine and the IMF. 

The Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Artem Sytnyk, has called for anti-corruption courts to quickly hear cases and refund losses during the transition period. He said that the creation of the anti-corruption court is intended to have no large time-lags between the end of the investigation and court decisions.