The State Guard and Protection Service will be transferred under the management of the President of Moldova. A bill to this effect was passed by the votes of 61 MPs in the June 18 sitting of Parliament. The document will take effect when it is published in the Official Gazette, IPN reports.

The director and vice director of the State Guard and Protection Service will be appointed and dismissed by the Head of State. The structure and personnel units of the Service will be set by presidential decree. Also, the President will confer special ranks on the Service’s director and vice director.

The bill authors, MPs of the PSRM and ACUM, said that after the law on the State Guard and Protection Service of 2008 was amended in 2016, the President was deprived of the right to decide whether to offer or not protection to state officials, including as regards the head offices, residences and facilities that are protected by the Service, and of the possibility of naming the director and vice director of the Service, of approving the composition of the Service’s Board and of deciding the organizational structure and personnel units of the Service.