The National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum came with a public statement by which it describes the “involutions” in Parliament, especially those witnessed on December 3 and 16, as unprecedented worsening of the democratic process in the Republic of Moldova because a series of laws were adopted in breach of the main principles concerning the promotion of legal acts and decisional transparency. According to them, these laws undermine the economic and social security of the state, the efforts to fight corruption and the macro-economic and social stability in the country.
In a news conference at IPN, national facilitator of the National Platform Adrian Lupușor, executive director of the Independent Think Tank “Expert Grup”, said the abrogation of the “billion law” is nothing else but an action that de-capitalizes the National Bank and creates a situation in which this makes an uncovered issue. This means risks to the stability of the national currency, inflationist risks and risks to the stability of the national currency. Furthermore, this will oblige the Ministry of Finance to make other debts so as to capitalize the NBM that is not a private institution, while its de-capitalization will oblige the Government to issue other debts so as to capitalize it.
This new issue of debts will be at a much higher cost than the previous rate of 5% as the interest rates on state securities are now higher than 5%. The state budget costs will rise as will the costs for repaying the state debt next year because this mechanism will undermine investors’ confidence in the state. The annulment of this mechanism creates a dangerous precedent by which the state does not honor its commitments. This will affect the relations with the IMF and other partners and foreign assistance will fail to be obtained. The Government next year will have to find resources to cover financially these commitments. These resources will most probably come from optimization of capital investments and probably from particular rises in taxes, which is a twice larger burden on taxpayers.
The best strategy in the case of the “bank fraud” is to identify those who committed the frauds, to punish those to blame and to track down the stolen funds. Other accounting ‘stratagems’ are just populism and another receipt for the population, stated Adrian Lupușor
According to Vladislav Gribincea, executive director of the Legal Resources Center from Moldova, which is a member of the National Platform, another set of amendments adopted on December 16 refer to the bill registered only 12 days earlier by several Socialist MPs. The goal of this bill is to limit the National Integrity Authority’s powers related to the imposition of penalties on public functionaries. The bill hadn’t been approved by the Government and hadn’t been subject to anticorruption revaluation and provides that the NIA will be unable to punish a public functionary with dismissal if only one year after the commission of the violation. Before that change was made, the penalty could be imposed at any time during the mandate. This makes the loss of the mandate by public functionaries who violate practically impossible.
Also, in the second reading the bill was supplemented with a provision that prevents the punishment of public functionaries for the impossibility of justifying the property. The Penal Procedure Code was amended so that it allows instituting criminal proceedings over unjustified property after the NIA ascertains the violation and the relevant decision becomes final. This means it is impossible to hold the person accountable as the statute of limitations is of five years, while the NIA carries out searches during three years and challenges can be then filed to court. The system for challenging the NIA documents was modified so that these documents can be challenged in court not during 15 days, but during a year and this generates uncertainty as to the effects of the documents issued by the NIA. Also, the NIA will be unable to verify the public functionaries who held several offices in a row during each of the mandates, but could do it only for the last mandate.
“In a country that says zero tolerance of corruption is an absolute priority for it, such bills do not match the stated intentions. The bill was promoted with the aim of hampering further the fight against corruption,” stated Vladislav Gribincea.
Founded in 2011, the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum has 96 members, seven of which are umbrella organizations for another over 255 organizations. The statement was signed by 93 member organizations.
