The Minister of Labor and Social Protection says a State Social Inspectorate should be founded so that this is empowered to impose fines. Marcel Spatari noted the penalties will be imposed on recipients of social benefits who submit false statements and the functionaries who deliberately violate the rules of providing assistance. The minister assured that the new inspection body will not aim to collect fines at any cost, but will bring things in the provision of social assistance in order, IPN reports.

The minister said that after the relevant bill is given a second reading by Parliament, the Social Inspection will become the State Social Inspectorate.  The prerogative of the new entity will be to supervise the correctness of providing social assistance, of compiling proceedings and of imposing fines if irregularities in the distribution of state funds are identified.

“A number of irregularities were identified in the process of providing social benefits the last few years. We have a Social Inspection that carries out inspections in the social assistance sector, but this institution can only compile a report following these inspections and does not have the power to ascertain administrative contraventions and impose fines. That’s why, to make sure that the money we provide to the beneficiaries of allowances reach the destination, we need a more rigorous control. This does not mean that the State Social Inspectorate tomorrow will start to impose fines. This means that penalties in the form of warnings can be imposed, but these should be taken seriously,” Marcel Spatari stated in the talk show “Place for Dialogue” on Radio Moldova station.

The minister said the new inspection entity will impose only administrative penalties ranging from warnings to fines. The State Social Inspectorate will not be a repressive body whose goal will be to collect money into the state budget by imposing fines reasonably.

“Currently, if the State Inspection identifies very obvious irregularities that cause damage to the state budget, the case is sent to the Prosecutor’s Office and a trial that can last long is initiated. That’s why the inspectors often do not send the cases to the Prosecutor’s Office as this can take a lot of time. The powers were only extended now. The employees of the Social Inspectorate will be able to impose administrative penalties. There will be penalized also the recipients who submitted false statements. But this will not be an institution that will collect fines,” stated Marcel Spatari.

According to official data, the rate of identifying violations in the provision of social benefits in 2020 was over 95%, while the applications with violations that generate undue payments was  60.2%.