Three participants of the Educational Certification Program in Fighting Corruption - Nino Taganashvili (Senior Specialist of the Analytical Department of the Ministry of Justice), Mariam Salukvadze (Inspector of Especially Important Cases in the Human Rights Protection and Quality Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia) and Ana Gogoladze (Member of the seventh convocation of the Tbilisi City Assembly), along with other members of the Eurasian Academic Anti-Corruption Network, paid a study visit to Moldova.

The purpose of the study visit was to increase the knowledge and raise awareness of the program participants about the risks of corruption as well as anti-corruption mechanisms in Moldova. At the same time, the study visit strengthened the cooperation of the representatives of the Eurasian Academic Anti-Corruption Network and encouraged planning future activities.

The program of the study visit included raising the awareness and knowledge of participants regarding the budget transparency and corruption risks in the public sector; Good governance and corruption risks in state-owned enterprises; Whistleblower protection and implementation of good faith mechanisms; Countering the money laundering. At the same time, during the visit, the participants visited the Anti-Corruption Center of Moldova, the Court of Moldova and got acquainted with the specifics of their activities.

The study visit to Moldova was organized by the Eurasian Academic Anti-Corruption Network (Eurasian Academic Anti-Corruption Network), Expert-Group and ACREC, as well as the Soros Foundation Moldova. The study visit took place from January 17 to January 21, 2022. The participants of the study visit have been selected based on the open competition, and the participants and graduates of the Educational Certification Program in Fighting Corruption from Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia participated in the competition.

In total, 41 applications were sent from the mentioned countries, among them were 20 applications from Georgia. It is noteworthy that the host organizations funded the visit of only one representative from each country. As applications from Georgia accounted for half of all applications from all participant countries, and the host organizations funded only one representative per country, IDFI provided additional funding for two representatives within the scopes of the ongoing project of “Building Sustainable Human Capacity in Fighting Corruption”. As a result, unlike other countries, three representatives of Georgia took part in the study visit.

The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) started the implementation of the Educational Certification Program in Fighting Corruption in 2019 in cooperation with Ilia State University. The program is financially supported by the Open Society Foundations (OSF) in the framework of the project “Building Sustainable Human Capacity in Fighting Corruption”.