Thirteen political parties in 2018 didn’t report costs totaling over 17.5 million lei. The costs for public events are the most non-transparent category of costs, says a report by Promo-LEX Association that was presented on June 6, IPN reports.
According to financial analyst Cornelia Călin, the internal audit reports of parties that had incomes higher than 1 million lei reveal formal and mainly unfounded conclusions and recommendations. Moreover, many of these reports are ambiguous as to the type of internal audit requested by the mandated authority from parties. The Association regrets that the relevant institutions didn’t formulate reference terms following the adoption of the law so that these could be used by the involved parties.
The expert said a critical point is the inefficient penalties for the violation of financing rules, with the fines being too small. Among the achievements, she noted the rise in the number of parties that submitted financial reports to the Central Election Commission. In 2018, 96% of the parties, specifically 44 parties of 46, presented reports.
Another conclusion of the report refers to party financing by third parties, which is more evident in electoral periods. As a recommendation, Promo-LEX programs director Pavel Postica said the citizens who live outside Moldova should be allowed to finance political parties. The CEC should standardize the financial reports in the election campaign and outside it and some of the divisions should be made clearer.
The Association also presented a report on the activities performed by the CEC in 2018, assessed through the angle of the strategic and annual plans. Promo-LEX analyst Mariana Focșa said of the 31 activities planned by the CEC for last year, the institution managed to fully implement 68% of them and partially 26%. Some 6% of the activities remained unimplemented.
Attending the news conference, CEC president Alina Russu said the formulated recommendations will be taken into account so as to improve the electoral processes in Moldova. The CEC permanently monitors the accuracy of the data from financial reports, but is not mandated to perform audits as this is the task of external auditors.