Businessmen claim deficiencies in the mechanism of applying “the Guillotine”. Analysis by Info-Prim Neo

Businessmen welcome the implementation of the Law on revising and optimizing the normative frame regulating the entrepreneurship activity (Guillotine I), the first stage of which referred just to the departmental normative acts, which have a regulating character. At the same time, they ascertain that the mechanism of applying the law is not really perfect. Solicited by Info-Prim Neo to comment on the implementation of the Guillotine, director executive of the Republican Club of businessmen “Timpul”, Ion Lesan appreciated that the law is a very good one, but a correct implementation is needed. According to the cited source, at present, the implementation mechanism of the law “still has some gaps”. According to Lesan, contrary to the provisions of the Guillotine law, some drafts or normative acts are not presented for expertise to the workgroup, composed of the international experts of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, USAID, ministries, NGOs and employers. The cited source asserts that happens because of the unwillingness of the authorities to receive negative feedbacks to the drafts promoted by them. Ion Lesan states that, after being revised, normative acts correspond more to the reality, than the original drafts elaborated by the officials who do not know the real situation. As part of the workgroup, sides expose their opinions on the normative act, ministries defend their interests, and experts present the situation on the international market. Thus a compromise is reached that seems to be the most correct decision. “Authorities should pay more attention to the interests of businessmen, who actually bring money to the budget, than to those of the Ministry of Finances, Fiscal Inspectorate and Customs Service, as they often do”, specified Lesan. In what concerns the dialogue between the Parliament and businessmen, director of the “Orvento Metal” company, Igor Crapivca, declared recently that the Legislative is not really concerned by the opinion of the business community. According to his words there are several cases when amendments to legislative acts weren’t examined by NGOs, nor have they been discussed by the businessmen community, or passed through the Economic Council under the Prime-Minister, being approved without the confirmation from the part of Patronages and that of the Tripartite commission. Crapivca thinks that the ignoring of the business community’s interests as well as of those of the civil society by the Parliament and the Government is a consequence of the partition of the society and of the lack of will or of power to cooperate for reaching the common goal – creation of a more transparent and more predictable state policy. According to Crapivca, at present, there is need for creating a National Congress of NGOs from the republic, in order to elaborate new policies oriented towards the development of cooperation between NGOs and the state. As part of the congress, forwarding a bill to the Parliament concerning the control over the state’s activities could be discussed. Such a draft has been proposed to the Parliament by the “Timpul” club, more than 3 years ago, but, according to the cited source, it is currently “gathering dust in a drawer of Parliament”. Crapivca says that the implementation of such a law would legalize the rights of NGOs, which exist all over the world, and would legalize the public control over the governmental activity. Director of the International Association “Business and Parliament – Moldova” (IABP–Moldova), dr. Romeo Turcan, declared that IABP–Moldova contributes, at present to the display of a continual transparent dialogue between the Legislative and the local business milieu, by launching the project „National Mechanism of collaboration between business and the Parliament”. According to his words, the cooperation between the two sides is of great importance now in order to avoid corruption acts and improve the transparency of decisions and the public image of the Parliament. By elaborating strategies and tactics, both the members of associations and the state would benefit; the first ones – by promoting their interests, the second- by developing the sector. According to Turcan, the Parliament is currently working on the issue at the level of Committees, representatives of non-governmental institutions as well as of sector associations being invited. Turcanu asserts that the aim of these activities is to create a complex vision over the reality and inform MPs, so that they, from their part, gain time, while the bills are examined by specialists. Till present, several drafts were discussed in the parliamentary committees, related to domains of pharmaceutics, informational technologies, business incubators, and private security. Recently, President Vladimir Voronin declared that „the Guillotine” was supported by the business environment, in spite of the skepticism characteristic for its representatives. The head of state pronounced for the prompt and solid implementation of “Guillotine II” as part of which legislative acts would be revised. According to a press release from the Presidency, Voronin emphasized that all ministries and state institutions should be involved in these activities, as well as the business community and the civil society. The President specified that the regulating function of the state should be oriented towards the development, and the instruments of regulatory restraint - towards the assurance of equal conditions as well as the security of individuals and that of the society as a whole.