Viorel Chetraru, Mihai Godea, Marian Lupu present personal interest statements

The head of the Center for Combating Corruption and Economic Crime Viorel Chetraru, unaffiliated MP Mihai Godea and Head of Parliament Marian Lupu submitted personal interest statements within the “Interests in Sight” campaign” carried out by the Association of Independent Press and the Anticorruption Alliance, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the statement, Viorel Chetraru earns a salary of 5,800 lei from his main job and is neither member nor founder of a noncommercial organization or political party. His wife Loreta Chetraru is an economist-coordinator at “Chisinau-Gaz” and has a salary of 5,580 lei. Viorel Chetraru’s brother Victor Chetraru works as a surgeon at the Medical Center “Medpark”. His mother is a teacher of history, while his father is a councilor representing the Democratic Party of Moldova on the Hancesti district council. In his statement, Marian Lupu said he holds only the post of Speaker and is the founder of the Democratic Party of Moldova, but did not indicate his salary. His wife Victoria Lupu works as a teacher at the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova. Her salary was also not specified. Mihai Godea declared he earns a salary of 7,100 lei a month as a lawmaker. He also heads the Youth Society “Nicolae Titulescu” and the Center for Support to the Public Administration Reform. The occupation and salary of his wife Gabriela Olarescu-Godea was not indicated. The Association of Independent Press and the Anticorruption Alliance will also call on other civil servants to make interest statements public. According to the two NGOs, the experts are skeptical about the initiative to create the autonomous Main Ethics Commission that would verify the personal interest statements of the functionaries. The bill on the constitution of this commission was passed by the legislative body in first reading. Mariana Calughin, of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption, considers that the commission will not be efficient if harsh punishments are not imposed for the non-presentation of statements. “The statement submission process should result in penalties for the persons who got rich illegally. Things will not change if we do not have severe penalties for illegal enrichment,” she stated. Expert of Transparency International Moldova Iana Spinei said such a commission should have been set up long ago. “An intention to create the Main Ethics Commission existed in 2005. But even if there is no such commission, nobody hinders the employees of public institutions from submitting personal interest statements of their own free will, especially because there are disciplinary punishments or even administrative punishments in the form of fines of 3,000 to 6,000 lei,” said Iana Spinei. The law on the conflict of interests covers several categories of persons, including the President of Moldova, lawmakers, members of the Government, judges of the Constitutional Court and courts of law, prosecutors, prosecution officers, employees of the diplomatic service, Customs Service, and the law enforcement bodies, councilors, heads and deputy heads of public institutions, and others.