The earnings and other types of incomes declared by prosecutors and representatives of the Ministry of Justice continue to rise. The incomes from donations, particularly of prosecutors, generate concerns. The number of prosecutors who declare donations exceeds the number of representatives of the Ministry of Justice (two times in 2020). A large part of the prosecutors declared donations that exceed 100,000 lei a year. There are cases when the donation incomes of some of the prosecutors are comparable or are several times higher than their earnings, shows the analytical report “Declaring of incomes and property of prosecutors in the Republic of Moldova” that was produced by the NGO Transparency International Moldova (TIM).
TIM expert Iana Spinei, in a news conference at IPN, said that on the one hand, exorbitant sums of money are collected at family events of prosecutors. On the other hand, the organization of such events implies corresponding costs, but this is not confirmed by the incomes declared by these. “The consistent transfers from relatives from abroad, who mostly have less queried jobs and are paid worse and seem to be unable to make such donations/transfers, generate concerns,” stated Iana Spinei.
According to the expert, some of the important incomes from bank deposits of both of the categories of employees do not correspond to their financial assets and this means that not all the assets in the Republic of Moldova and outside the country were declared or these incomes have another origin than the indicated one. Moreover, some of the persons do not declare incomes from bank deposits even if they have checking accounts.
“Even if most of the persons declared real estate, an important part of them didn’t indicate even the houses or apartments in which the supposedly live. The average area of houses/apartments owned by a family of prosecutors is larger than that of the representatives of the MJ. The value of some of the real estate owned by these functionaries is diminished considerably compared with the market value. Investigative journalists report cases when prosecutors do not declare such assets, but register them in the name of relatives or trustworthy persons, including abroad,” said Iana Spinei.
The expert noted that the purchase of virtual currency is an opportunity for hiding ill-gotten gains. The integrity inspectors should have skills to trace such assets. However, in the absence of a regulatory framework, the given norm remains nonfunctional.
The average monthly pension of prosecutors rises continuously. On January 1, 2022, this was about 18,000 lei and exceeded the national average monthly pension seven times and the minimum monthly pension about nine times. The average monthly remuneration of persecutors also grew, being of about 23,000 lei in 2020, which is about three times higher than the average monthly salary in the economy.
In 2018-2021, the Prosecutor General’s Office started 44 criminal cases against prosecutors, 43% of which on eventual episodes of corruption and related cases and 16% on eventual episodes of unjust enrichment. The largest number of cases were started in 2021. The PGO didn’t start criminal cases on eventual cases of falsification in property and interests statements of prosecutors, even if the National Integrity Authority (NIA) issued six such notices. In the period, the PGO sent to court 13 cases started against prosecutors, ten of which on eventual episodes of corruption and related cases and one case on an eventual episode of unjust enrichment, stated Iana Spinei.
Transparency International Moldova recommends the NIA to fundamentally familiarize the public agents with the method of filling out tax returns and to include concrete examples of completing different sections of the tax return in its guidebook. The NIA should sign cooperation agreements with the responsible authorities from other countries as this will facilitate the identification and verification of incomes and property of declaration subjects from abroad. It is recommended determining the capacities of persons who make donations. Transparency International Moldova also suggests that the representatives of civil society and the media should be offered access to the digitized database of the property and personal interest statements of the NIA.
Note: IPN News Agency gives the right of reply to persons who consider they were touched by the news items produced based on statements of the organizers of the given news conference, including by facilitating the organization of another news conference in similar conditions.
