Undeclared money of political parties are a source of power, NGO
There are a number of reasons why the political parties do not declare all the costs incurred in the election campaigns and do not make public information about the real donors, Sergiu Ostaf, director of the Resource Center for Human Rights (CreDO), said in an interview for Info-Prim Neo, titled “{Financing of all parties depends on several dozens of persons}”. He made reference to the study “Financing of political parties in the November 28, 2010 parliamentary elections”, carried out by CreDO and the Center for Partnership Development.
Asked what the parties hide, Sergiu Ostaf said they use a part of the undeclared incomes. The origin of a part of the incomes is dubious as the money comes from undeclared sources and donors. “Hypothetically, we can say that this money is provided as a reward for clientilism/favoritism or for protectionism,” said the expert.
According to him, the bodies that supervise how the financial resources are used in the election campaign (the CEC, the Tax Inspectorate) do not express interest in becoming involved, do not have adequate legal and resource instruments and are dependent on the political environment. At the same time, civil society is limited in promoting the public interest and carrying out activities to make the political parties more responsible.
Sergiu Ostaf said the parties hide a significant part of the costs in order to avoid criticism from society and from potential voters and current supporters of the parties as regards the large sums of money spent in the struggle for power. It is a kind of political hypocrisy because Moldova is not a wealthy country, but every political party spends by tens of millions of lei during one election campaign,” said CreDO director.
He added that the leaders (representatives) of parties want to hold levers of financial influence in the party and the control over the undeclared financial resources make the supporters and members dependent on the party's administration and discourage internal competition.
Sergiu Ostaf said the unofficial financing of the parties implies risks for society. “In general, we see that the process of making the country democratic by ensuring transparency in the use of money is hindered. The non-transparent political parties promote the same rules as regards the establishment and functioning of the state institutions. This is serious and inadmissible. The whole society is exposed to risks,” said the expert.
According to the study “Financing of political parties in the November 28, 2010 parliamentary elections”, the political parties in election campaigns spend about 50 million lei coming from officially recorded donations and another approximately 50 million undeclared lei.