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Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova

The Court of Accounts and the Independent Anti-Corruption Advisory Committee discussed the issue of financing political parties


https://www.ccrm.md/en/the-court-of-accounts-and-the-independent-anti-corruption-advisory-committee-80_92645.html

At the request of the Independent Anticorruption Advisory Committee (IAAC), today, February 2, a meeting with the representatives of the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova (CoARM) was organized by teleconference.

At the request of the Independent Anticorruption Advisory Committee (IAAC), today, February 2, a meeting with the representatives of the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova (CoARM) was organized by teleconference. The meeting of the IAAC with the representatives of the Court of Accounts is organized for the first time and is part of the process of drawing up the third report of the IAAC which is to analyze the financing of political parties, the Court of Accounts being requested to share its experience in this context.

The Independent Anti-Corruption Advisory Committee under the President of the Republic of Moldova is an independent structure made up of international and national experts, established in June 2021, throughout the Presidential Decree no. 114 of 10.06.2021. The IAAC's mission is to analyze the systemic problems of grand corruption affecting state institutions and to improve their capacity to implement anti-corruption measures.

Petru Rotaru, Member of the CoARM, informed the experts about the high appreciation of the quality and compliance with international profile standards of the activity of the Court of Accounts, stated following a series of international evaluations to which the CoARM was subjected during the last 3 years. This fact lends credibility to the activity of the Court of Accounts and the reports drawn up following the audits, which are carried out according to the international rigors in the field.

In this context, Ecaterina Paknehad, Head of the CoARM’s Apparatus, Natalia Trofim, Head of the General Audit Department and Ana Saichin, representative of the Legal Division of the Court of Accounts, discussed with the external experts the legal provisions, the mandate and responsibilities of the supreme audit institution regarding the auditing of the financing of political parties, the provisions of international auditing standards, applied in a national context, as well as the provisions of the legal framework related to the activity and financing of political parties, etc.

In this context, the participants addressed the issue of inconsistencies between the mandate of a supreme audit institution and the national legal framework related to the field addressed. Thus, the Political Parties Law no. 294 from 21.12.2007 provides that allocations from the state budget used for other destinations than those provided for in some paragraphs of the mentioned Law are returned to the state budget based on a decision of the Court of Accounts, in the amount used contrary to the destination. The given provision does not meet the rigors of international standards regarding the mandate and mission of the supreme audit institution, noted the CoARM’s representatives, mentioning the need to review other provisions of Law no. 294/2007.

Also, the participants discussed other inconsistencies in the legal framework, in particular some provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Moldova no. 218/2008 regarding the detection of contraventions regarding the use contrary to the intended purpose of allocations from the state budget for political parties.

The report that will be developed by IAAC aims to identify legal, institutional and practical deficiencies in the system of financing political parties in the Republic of Moldova and will focus on the processes of financing political parties, financing electoral campaigns and transparency.

We mention that the IAAC consists of six members - three from the Republic of Moldova - and three international ones. The six experts were selected through consultations between the Presidency of the Republic of Moldova and international organizations specialized in fighting corruption and with experience in the field of debunking corruption schemes in international institutions, anti-corruption consultancy and drafting anti-corruption policies.