The foundation of the Chisinau Lyceum “Mircea Eliade” illegally collected money from students’ parents. This is the conclusion reached by the National Anticorruption Center (NAC) as a result of the conducted investigations. The Center established that the Ministry of Education’s order on the additional measures aimed at preventing corruption in education institutions, which bans the collection of money in schools and the involvement of teachers and managerial staff in this process, was not obeyed. It was also determined that the foundation was registered with violations, IPN reports.

A member of the foundation admitted that he multiplied the notice and then sent copies to teachers for being disseminated to students and parents. After questioning the foundation’s accountant, it was ascertained that over 74,000 lei was collected in only five days of the distribution of the notice. The accounting documents show that 41 parents paid sums of 260 lei to 5,000 lei to the foundation. The accountant said the money wasn’t spent and the exact purpose for which it was collected is not known.

The NAC will consider the opportunity of penalizing the persons who involved minors in the transmission of money within education institutions. It will formulate recommendations for the Ministry of Education to regulate the ethics norms applying to the relations between teachers, school administrators, parents and students. It will also suggest instituting a mechanism for reporting cases of constraining to make formal and informal payments in schools.