On 17 April 2019, the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (IDIS) "Viitorul" has organized a workshop in Cahul. The purpose of the event was to create a network of non-governmental organizations in the southern region and to share best practices on monitoring public procurement, the effectiveness of local public services and the transparency of the electoral process. The event was attended by representatives of civil society, local public authorities (LPAs) of the southern region of the Republic of Moldova and by a representative of the British Embassy in Chisinau.
The debut of the workshop was dedicated to the issues of integrity and transparency in public procurement, indispensable to the good governance in a democratic state. The public procurement sector is sensitive and exposed to corruption risks and therefore requires control and monitoring from civil society in order to protect the public interest. IDIS "Viitorul" believes that civil society has an important role in the process of reforming the public procurement system. That is why an open dialogue between the Government, civil society and the business community is the key element in this process.
The topic of effective public services was then tackled by ADEPT experts who pointed out that some communities manage to deliver better quality services than other. This was explained by experts as an issue stemming from LPAs overall performance. At the same time, in some places the investments in public services are very small, and thus the poor results.
At the end of the workshop, the Promo-Lex expert talked about the monitoring of electoral processes and candidates in the Republic of Moldova, as well as about the issue of them reporting their income. The result of the ten year monitoring of elections was the increase in the level of trust of the public in the Central Electoral Commission, and this, in its turn, has determined a greater responsibility among political actors who have begun to disclose the sources of finances for their electoral campaigns.
The participants in the workshop expressed great interest in the discussed topics, an interest reflected in the big number of questions addressed to experts, which proves the need for them to be taken up and implemented, also locally, by other civil society organizations from Moldova. The need for training activities which would actively involve citizens in the process of developing and monitoring local policies, including on public procurement and public services, was mentioned a priority.
The event was organized under the framework of the «Cutting edge improvements in the public procurement system in Moldova through inclusiveness, creativity and law-abiding practices» Project, implemented by IDIS “Viitorul” funded with UK aid from the UK Government.
