The pensioners in Moldova are not officially informed about the method of calculating the pension, while the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family does not have a common methodology for calculating the pension indicators and this does not give credibility to the reported data. These are some of the conclusions of the report on the audit of the performance of the pension system in Moldova, which was presented by the Audit Office, IPN reports.
The audit shows that the high number of indicators included in the formula for calculating the pension does not allow the applicants to know and understand the method of calculating the pension. The social contributions cannot cover all the costs related to pensions. “The debts to the state social insurance budget are a sensitive issue. On October 31, 2014, the debts represented 1.1 billion lei,” said rapporteur Violeta Andries.
“The analysis of the audit team, together with other analyses made in the field, will enable to work out a series of amendments to the current legislation. The report says the legislation is outdated and fragmented and measures should be taken immediately to improve the situation,” Minister of Labor Mircea Buga said in reaction to the Court’s report.
The audit team also carried out inspections at the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defense, where it identified deficiencies in the functioning and efficiency of the process of setting the pensions of servicemen. “When these pensions are determined, there are no conditions as regards the retirement age, compared with other categories of people. It was established that the two institutions do not verify the correctness of the pension provision process and many pensions are thus paid in advance,” stated Violeta Andries.
The audit revealed the necessity of instituting an institution responsible for the setting and payment of pensions to the mentioned categories. Currently, the National House of Social Insurance manages 97% of the social insurance information system. The Ministry of Labor recommends taking over the relevant duties from the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defense by appropriately adjusting the House’s information system.
The data related to the pension system are now not systematized at national level. Also, the large deficit of the social insurance budget is due to the non-respecting of the budget discipline concerning contribution payment. Thus, the audit team recommended creating mechanisms for monitoring the companies that do not pay the social contributions on time.
Currently, there are 691,000 pensioners in Moldova. At the end of 2014, the costs for paying pensions totaled 9.1 billion lei.
