President Igor Dodon’s announcement that a part of the central bank’s profit will be directed to the state budget for covering the costs incurred by the citizens as a result of the adoption of the so-called “billion law” generated heated discussions. Some of the panel of experts invited by Jurnal TV said this money will be transferred from one pocket of the state to another, without changing essentially the situation. Others consider this could be a new embezzlement scheme, IPN reports.
Deputy Parliament Speaker Alexandru Slusari, MP of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform”, said that by this announcement President Igor Dodon manipulates public opinion. The only solution now is to impose a moratorium. The law enforcement agencies should have looked for the money and recovered it from those who stole it and should have punished those to blame. They could have returned to this law after using up all the other possibilities. “What Igor Dodon suggests is that we can wait for another five years without recovering the money and holding those to blame accountable. This means that Igor Dodon does not want, does not believe that something can be done about the bank fraud and comes up with an electoral solution that would apparently show he did something,” stated the MP.
Vlad Kulminski, executive director of the Institute for Strategic Initiatives, said everyone should understand that Igor Dodon takes public money from the National Bank, which is earned from deposits made in foreign banks. “Mister Dodon tells us that he will take this money and will spend it as he thinks it is correct. This is electoral, political reasoning that is rather pronounced I think,” stated Vlad Kulminski, noting there is no guarantee that this money will not be stolen and he believes this is just another scheme.
Jurist Pavel Midrigan noted the National Bank of Moldova is an accomplice to the bank fraud and the state shouldn’t pay it anything back. “The NBM is an accomplice because such money shouldn’t have been provided to the banks. Where is it written that so much money should have been offered? The NBM shouldn’t have become involved as it is an accomplice this way. The former governor and others should have been prosecuted. No money should be paid back to the NBM,” he said.
Political commentator Victor Ciobanu stated the President’s initiative is an artifice. “The state has two conventional pockets – the state budget and the National Bank’s reserve. Dodon suggests amending the law so that a part of the NBM’s profit that is a strategic reserve is moved to the other pocket called the budget and is then transferred back to the NBM. Physically, this is an accounting operation. The money could have remained in one place. No one bothered to look for the stolen US$1 billion and restore it to the NBM,” said the commentator.
On February 10, President Igor Dodon announced that a part of the Bank’s profit will be directed to the state budget for covering the sums that the citizens must pay as a result of the adoption of the so-called “billion law”. He said the measure forms part of a bill that provides for the reduction of the burden borne by the people. The bill will be examined by the Government this week and will be presented to Parliament for adoption.
