The NAC has objections to the quality of several draft normative acts on the agenda of the Parliament and the Government: there are ambiguities and risks of corruption

Several drafts of normative acts, on the agenda of the Parliament and the Government, were submitted to the anti-corruption expertise, this week, and the NAC experts found multiple risks of corruption and abuses in the texts of the documents. Among the expertized projects are: the draft Government decision on the transfer of assets on A. Mateevici Street in Chisinau, from the administration of the State Chancellery to the administration of the Ministry of Culture; the draft law empowering the Court of Accounts to conduct external audits of natural gas companies, as well as the draft Government decision on the approval of the Competition Regulations for the position of registrar in the cadastral field.

Analyzing the draft Government decision on the transfer of assets on A. Mateevici Street in Chisinau, from the administration of the State Chancellery to the Ministry of Culture, the NAC experts found that, following the approval of the project, the National Museum of Literature "Mihail Kogalniceanu ”would manage four buildings and a plot of land. According to experts, the text of the project contradicts the data in the Real Estate Register and the provisions of the related regulatory framework, and this may lead to the promotion of private interests, to the detriment of the public interest.

The NAC experts warn that the promotion of the project, in this formula, could lead to the illegal management of public property, and possible abuses could be "legalized". At the same time, the loss of public property of the state over the buildings proposed for transfer would be irreversible. Therefore, there is a risk that the interests of the state will be seriously harmed.

Objections were also made to the draft law empowering the Court of Auditors to conduct an external audit of natural gas companies. From the outset, the draft establishes rules that derogate from the general regulatory framework, which would allow misinterpretations. The draft law creates preconditions for potential auditors to resort to acts of corruption in order to induce officials to exempt them from auditing or to audit them unjustifiably. At the same time, there is a risk that public officials responsible for auditing may not be held liable for possible integrity incidents or admitted manifestations of corruption, the report states. The NAC recommends a thorough specification of the subjects and the establishment of clear criteria according to which they will be qualified to be subject to the compliance audit.

Another expertized act is the draft decision of the Government on the approval of the Competition Regulations for the position of registrar in the cadastral field. The anti-corruption expertise states that the requirements that a candidate must meet refer to faulty legal provisions, and this is a major risk factor.

For example: in the text of the regulation is the expression "the cadastral registrar must have an impeccable reputation". Normally, however, it is not specified what conditions the candidate must meet this qualification. Thus, in the absence of clear pre-established criteria, there is a risk that a person will be appointed according to the own beliefs of the members of the Competition Commission, the report says.

Anti-corruption experts recommend revising and excluding the potentially corruptible rules reflected in the expert report, so that the regulatory act is effectively enforced and the risks of corruption are kept to a minimum.

We remind, the NAC has been carrying out anti-corruption expertise since 2006.

The full reports can be found by accessing the link https://cna.md/reports.php?l=ro