The fact that Sergiu Cioclea announced his resignation as governor of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) in an ad-hoc briefing showed that he was determined to leave and he offered no chance of being persuaded to keep office. There are probably things that governor Cioclea considered a powerful blow to him as an economist in the held post, Transparency International Moldova expert Veaceslav Negruță was quoted by IPN as saying in the talk show “Expertise hour” on Jurnal TV channel.
According to him, the so-called package of tax laws that contained the law on capital amnesty caused the most serious problem to the governor. They often intervened in the banking legislation and this way opened a number or risk zones that created professional discomfort to the governor. “The IMF and the WB, and other development partners, pronounced on the law on capital amnesty, which is noxious. They didn’t manage to adopt it first in 2016, but succeeded now, in 2018. The NBM governor is governor at the IMF on behalf of the Republic of Moldova and any governor is between two camps in such a position. The given discomfort could have been an important element that determined the decision announced today,” stated Veaceslav Negruță.
He added Cioclea obtained the seven-year tenure amid the crisis situation determined by the banking fraud. This was a financial, banking and economic crisis.
The expert noted the legislation on the activity of banks was worked out at the insistence of foreign experts and the changes were made under the guidance of the International Monetary Fund. On the other hand, the National Bank of Moldova was the one that worked to the extent to which it could to remove particular risk zones that existed in the legislation. “Not the quality of laws, but the implementation of laws is the biggest problem in the Republic of Moldova,” stated Veaceslav Negruță.
The expert reminded of several bills on the NBM that appeared over the past several months. One of them refers to the payment of compensations to employees who leave the NBM, while another one concerns the management of the bank from a distance. “We see interference. I don’t know if it’s from outside, from the National Bank or from the political class, but this makes me think that someone very insistently worked to be able to control the NBM not only as until now, but also from a distance,” he noted.
Expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Veaceslav Ioniță said it is known that the banking sector was facing many problems when Cioclea took over as governor. “The diagnosis was made. I saw no report showing that these situations were overcome or not,” he stated, noting they never spoke about internal governance at the NBM. “It is wrong to say that the NBM stayed aside when the banking theft occurred, being surprised of what happened. I hope a lot that Mister Cioclea conducted an internal inquiry to identify the fissures, problems and gaps in internal governance at the NBM.”
Veaceslav Ioniță admitted that Sergiu Cioclea could have performed such an investigation, but does not remember information about dismissed persons, cases sent to court and approaches made to the Prosecutor General’s Office being made public.
According to him, given the situation in the Republic of Moldova, the events in the banking system and the lack of answers to key questions, Sergiu Cioclea should provide more details so as to do something good in the public interest. “I think that news conference was not enough for the country we live in,” he stated.
On November 20, Sergiu Cioclea announced his resignation from the post of governor of the National Bank of Moldova as of November 30, 2018. The resignation was tendered to Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu.
