During a press conference on 11 September 2013, Promo-LEX and the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance launched the Second Quarterly Monitoring Report on the implementation of the Justice Sector Reform Strategy (monitoring period 1 April – 30 June 2013).
The monitoring effort focused on the observation of 2 basic components: assessing the implementation of actions included in the Justice Sector Reform Strategy Action Plan, and monitoring court trials. The Report analyzed 2 categories of actions, as follows: actions due for implementation by the end of Quarter 2 of 2013, and actions overdue since 2012 and Quarter 1 of 2013.
The Report found a number of outstanding actions in the Justice Sector Reform Strategy Action Plan. “Only 44 of 101 actions overdue since 2012 and Quarter 1 of 2013, or 43%, were implemented. Thus, we can state that the JSRS Action Plan implementation rate is very slow. The situation is worse with regard to actions due by the end of Quarter 2, 2013. Of the 31 actions scheduled for completion by that date, only 6 were implemented, which represents a 19% implementation rate,” Olesea Stamate, director of the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance, explained.
According to Pavel Postica, program director with the Promo-LEX Association, the component of monitoring trials and the quality of the judicial act had a positive dynamics. “We noted a positive trend in the trial monitoring component between the first and second Quarterly Reports. In the first Quarter, only 77 of all the monitored trials were held in courtrooms, while in Quarter 2, this number is almost three times larger. We also noted an approximately 12% increase in the number of audio-recorded hearings. If, in Quarter 1, only 145, or just under 50% of monitored hearings, were recorded, in Quarter 2, this number rose to 179 of the total 300 hearings monitored,” Pavel Postica added.
The main recommendations included in the Report mention the need to enhance the functioning of the institution of the Working Group; to include, in the Regulation on the functioning of Working Groups, a provision obliging the WG Secretariat to publish, in a timely manner, on the website of the Ministry of Justice, WG meetings’ minutes, agendas and other products of their work; and, last but not least, to amend the JSRS Action Plan by updating and revisiting the deadlines for action implementation, the relevance and topicality of certain actions, and, where applicable, the responsible institutions.
The electronic version of the Report is available under Publications on www.promolex.md and www.monitor.md.
This Report was implemented as part of the project “Monitoring the Justice Sector Reform Strategy to Increase Government’ Accountability”, implemented by Promo-LEX and the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance with the financial support of the European Union.
For more details, please contact: Carolina Bondarciuc, Press Officer, GSM: 069-637-849, Tel/Fax (+373 22) 450-024, Email [email protected]