High degree of corruption at Customs Service, report

In 2011, the number of internal investigations at the Customs Service has decreased in comparison to the previous year by 44 cases, yet the index “sanctioned employees” has increased, demonstrating a significant degree of corrupted behavior. This is the conclusion of an audit report on the Customs Service for 2011 presented by the Court of Accounts on Wednesday, reports Info-Prim Neo. Rapporteur Roman Fricatel said that the internal audit of the Customs Service is functional, with certain drawbacks in terms of lack of qualified staff, which hinders the achievement of the planned missions. Meanwhile, says the rapporteur, the proposals of the internal audit are taken into account by the Service’s leadership, however, subdivision don’t completely follow through and comply. Additionally, Roman Fricatel’s report shows some reservations in the full cashing of import rights recalculated by the control division, which denotes deficiencies in the paying discipline, in the aspect of debt accumulation. The audit also found the persistence of some issues, which are conditioned by the insufficiency of measures taken by decision-making bodies, or the delay of the revision process and approval of new normative-legislative acts. Head of the Customs Service Tudor Balitchi specified for the press that the number of sanctions has decreased, because the measures taken by the Customs Service keep employees from being able to violate regulations by themselves. For this reason, some fraud attempts are made through the creation of groups, which leads to the small number of investigations, yet more comprehensive, greater in volume, and sanctioning more people at once. Court of Accounts’ report will be published in the Official Gazette of Moldova and on the institution’s official website.