No Interior Ministry employee was punished for misuse of public finances

No person holding important positions at the Ministry of the Interior, who committed violations when using public funds and managing the public patrimony, was penalized by the institution’s administration, shows a study by Transparency International Moldova (TI-Moldova) that covers the years 2002 – 2009, Info-Prim Neo reports. During the presentation of the study on July 21, TI-Moldova exert Ianina Spinei said the research is a continuation of the process of monitoring the implementation of the Audit Office decisions, initiated by TI – Moldova in 2009. The study focused on the Audit Office Decision No. 5 of January 26, 2010, were there were enumerated multiple deviations from the legislation committed by the Ministry of the Interior. Among the identified irregularities were the violation by the Ministry’s former administration of the norms concerning the use of the special funds allocated by the Council of Europe and the European Police College Association, spending of money in the interests of parties, illegal sale of realty, breaking of the public procurement rules and others. As a result, considerable damage was caused to the state budget. Among the main conclusions of the study is that all the contacted public authorities responded to the requests for information. However, the institutions still provide evasive and summary answers and the access to public information continues to be restricted. TI-Moldova president Lilia Carashchuk said the sociological research of the quality of the Audit Office inspections revealed that compared with 2009, the public institutions were more willing to take part in the survey and to provide answers. This shows that they are more open in the communication with civil society and more sincere in giving answers. The situation as regards the use of internal audit systems at public institutions, ensuring of transparency in the internal audit activity and the measures taken to implement Audit Office decisions has slightly improved, but not enough. TI-Moldova recommends including penalties for the non-implementation of Audit Office decisions, devoting more attention by the Government and Parliament to the irregularities identified by the Audit Office at public institutions, ensuring greater transparency in the work of the public authorities, especially publishing information about the results of the internal audit activity, how the foreign assistance is used and how public acquisitions are made on their websites. The study “Monitoring the implementation of Audit Office decisions: the case of the Ministry of the Interior” was carried out with support from East Europe Foundation from the financial resources provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Foreign Ministry of Denmark.