IPN interview
The electronic reporting process at the National Social Insurance House (CNAS) ended recently. It was a step towards modernization, but it met with an expected dose of conservatism and led to the appearance of a number of questions, including about the digital signature. We received answers from the CNAS president Maria Borta and presented them in the interview below.
- Missis Maria Borta, what is electronic reporting in fact? Many consider it is mandatory.
- Under the norms defined in point 9, annex 3 to the 2013 State Social Insurance Budget Law, the payers to the state social insurance budget must present the statements of insured persons electronically every quarter. They must transmit the required information on flash drive to the Local Social Insurance House or over the Internet, using the reporting portal.
There is now no legislative document that would oblige businesses to present reports namely over the Internet. Electronic reporting is an alternative to traditional reporting. Every institution decides what reporting method to use.
- What does the reporting mechanism consist of?
In order to make sure that the information in the personal accounts is written correctly, verifications were included in the reporting process, which serve as criteria for identifying the persons in the database of the CNAS and enable to correctly write the information in the personal social insurance account of every employee.
Thus, the reporting mechanism has three verification stages. The first stage includes the mathematical verification at the level of the portal www.raportare.md. Within the second stage, there is verified the personal data for identifying the insured persons by comparing the personal data presented by the employer (name, surname, patronymic, IDNP code of the person when it is included in the statement of the insured person). By the way, there were eliminated all the mistakes from the CNAS database as regards the personal data. It was adjusted to the State Population Register. At the third stage, the information about the salaries and social insurance contributions of every employee is compared with the general information about the person included in the 4-BASS statement.
The inspection to see if the number of order of the person was kept in the package of documents presented in the first quarter was excluded. At yearend, economic entities’ REV-5 paper statements will be printed according to the order of the packages presented in the fourth quarter.
- Representatives of the business community expressed dissatisfaction with certain aspects of the electronic reporting system and the high costs associated with the digital signature. How justified are they?
- When a new, complex and very large process is launched, the CNAS understands that difficulties can appear in the electronic reporting process and anticipates uncertainties in the first reporting stages. All the involved institutions made maximum effort to successfully implement electronic reporting, but difficulties are encountered, as in any other new process.
- There are persons who complain about the high price of the digital signature that is needed for the electronic reporting procedure, suggesting that levying such a tax is a method by which the CNAS wants to ‘enrich’ itself. Why doesn’t the CNAS use the signature issued free by the Tax Inspectorate?
- As I said earlier, electronic reporting is optional. As to the use of digital signature on the presented reports, I want to underline that the CNAS is not empowered with the right to issue digital signatures and thus cannot make a profit from these transactions.
It should be noted that the certificate of the public key for digital signature is obtained by technical methods from the Public Key Certification Center of the Special Telecommunications Center or on the SIM card of the mobile phone carries Orange or Moldcell. The National Social Insurance House was informed by the given carriers that from July 1 this year the mobile signature will be issued for money. The conditions of obtaining a mobile signature are available on www.orange.md and www.moldcell.md.
The mobile signature service is a universal instrument used to authorize documents presented to a number of public institutions through electronic systems: e-CNAS, e-CNAM, e-Licensing, e-Fiscal Invoice, the Customs Office, etc.
As to the signatures issued by other public authorities, it should be noted that the reports presented to the CNAS contain personal data and these data are later used to determine the pension and other social benefits. Consequently, the reports need to be confirmed by digital signature with legal power or by holographic signature put on paper, in case of reporting without digital signature. The key phrase here is ‘digital signature with legal power’. So, the CNAS cannot accept a signature issued by other public authorities, which does not have legal power.
- There were signals that it is hard to use the electronic reporting system and that mistakes are made. What was done to improve the system?
- The National Social Insurance House is the only institution that collects reports with such a large volume of information, which contain details about every employee for a month. Moreover, these reports include information about the social benefits provided through the agency of the employer and that are compared with the overall data about the company.
Thus, the submission of reports to the CNAS at the first stage seems difficult, while the verification procedure takes time. In order to overcome the difficulties experienced when sending statements, one should study the instructions published on the portal www.raportare.md or on the CNAS’s website www.cnas.md.
The database of the CNAS was updated and the inclusion of incorrect personal data of employees will be thus avoided.
Ion Vasilică, IPN
