Vladimir Voronin: Public servants need to declare not only incomes, but also expenses

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin considers that the public servants should not only declare their incomes, but also their expenses. The President told the European Integration National Commission on October 21 that the practice of declaring incomes yields no result in counetring and preventing corruption, Info-Prim Neo reports. The President showed dissatisfaction at the information presented by the Anti-Corruption Center chief, Sergiu Puscuta, according to which no public servant has been fired for not presenting the income declaration or for presenting erroneous statements. “As long as we'll be gathering income declarations and will not make expenses declarations, everything will be perpetuum mobile and we'll have no result in fighting corruption. Neither will the public servants feel responsible for their incomes and expenses,” Vladimir Voronin stated. Sergiu Puscuta insisted that the Law on the functionaries declaring incomes is meant to check up the incomes corresponding with the expenses. “In terms of expenses they show the more costly goods, nut the running expenditures. The Law matches already the idea of preventing corruption, but it needs better enforcement mechanisms,” Puscuta suggested. He proposes that the civil servants declare not only their property gained for the last year, but all property upon completion of their mandate. He suggests many functionaries register their goods on their relatives' names. “We must do it in such a way that the functionary states his/her property when he/she becomes a civil servants, and then we'll from what he has started and with what he is ending his mandate,” the President responded. He has instructed the premier to study the international practice and modify the respective law. Vladimir Voronin also wants to find a way to impel the central and local authorities to make public information about vacancies, budgets public acquisitions. Referring to procurement tenders the President has said: “This is a Klondike. We have very much information about public procurements: agreements, yieldings, compromises, discounts, things not for the public budgets, but for quite other purposes.” “Nepotism in Moldova is far from being dead, it blossoms”, Vladimir Voronin said, referring to occupying vacancies in public organs. He suggests to cancel all the tenders, unless their conditions have been published a month before deadline. According to the secretary of the European Integration National Commission, Natalia Catrinescu, after analyzing web sites of public authorities, they established that only 40% of them publish information about vacancies, 50% about approved budgets and even less -- about public procurements.