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The Association of Independent Press (API) pursues the campaign „Fortune at sight”, promoting the transparency of state dignitaries' income and property. During February 2-8 this year, API monitored the extent to which Article 13 of the Law no. 1264 from 19.07.2002 is observed, the concerned Law stipulating the declaration and control of income and property of state dignitaries, judges, prosecutors, public officials and other ruling officials, and foreseeing the obligation to post statements on income and property on official websites.

Thus, throughout February 2-8, 2011, another 13 state dignitaries made their fortune public on the websites of the institutions they are running. They are:

- General Director of Customs Service, Tudor Baliţchi – http://customs.gov.md/index.php?id=2215 - Minister of Transportation and Road Infrastructure, Anatolie Şalaru – http://www.mtid.gov.md/img/new/Decalratia%20venit%20ministru.pdf

- Minister of Domestic Affairs, Alexei Roibu – http://www.mai.gov.md/content/7144

- Minister of Defense, Vitalie Marinuţa – http://www.army.md/inf/declaratie.pdf

- Minister of Justice, Alexandru Tănase – http://justice.gov.md/file/Structura%20Ministerului/doc%20scanat.pdf

- Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry, Vasile Bumacov – http://www.maia.gov.md/pageview.php?l=ro&idc=3&

- Deputy Minister of Education, Loretta Handrabura, posted several fragments from the content of the statement, but not its scanned copy – http://www.edu.gov.md/?lng=ro&MenuItem=2&SubMenu0=3&SubMenu1=1

- Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Octavian Bodişteanu – http://www.mts.gov.md/Sites/sport_ro/Uploads/Scanned%20at%202-1-2011%2011-56%20AM.FC17217BB4044BF091991E805358F162.pdf

- General Director of the Agency for Tourism, Ludmila Dumitraş – http://www.turism.gov.md/files/files/Declaratia.pdf

- President of Parliament, Interim President of RM, Marian Lupu – http://parlament.md/LastructuredeParlament/Deputies/tabid/87/Id/52/Default.aspx

- Prime Minister of R. Moldova, Vlad Filat – http://gov.md/public/files/declaratii/vlad_filat_declaratie_2010.pdf

- General Prosecutor, Valeriu Zubco – http://procuratura.md/file/declar2010.pdf

- Chairman of High Court of Justice, Ion Muruianu – http://www.csj.md/admin/public/uploads/Declaratia%20de%20venituri%20a%20Presedintelui%20CSJ%20pentru%20anul%202010.pdf

Till February 1, 2011 (the date of launching the campaign „Fortune at sight”), another ten state dignitaries showed off their estate on websites of the institutions they run, their list can be seen on http://api.md/events/14472/index.html

Till present, out of the 21 members of the Cabinet, only ten persons published their statements on income and property on official websites. No information came from two Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Regional Development and Construction, Environment, Education, Culture, Labor, Family and Social Protection, Health, Chairman of the Academy of Sciences and Gagauz-Yeri TAU Governor. From the 101 Members of the Parliament, only the speaker posted his statement on income and property on the Parliament's official website.

The legislation in force foresees that, latest March 3, 2011, the Head of the state, deputies, members of the Government, Chairman/Chairwoman of Constitutional Court, Chairman/Chairwoman of Higher Court of Justice, General Prosecutor, Chairman/Chairwoman of the Court of Accounts, Governor of National Bank of Moldova, Director of Secret Information Service, mayors of cities, towns and villages, district Chairmen/Chairwomen are obliged to make public their estate, posting their declarations on income and property on official websites of institutions or in mass-media. Article 13 of the Law no.1264 clearly foresees that statements on income and property „are published on a yearly basis in republican or local mass-media, as well as the official websites of Presidency, Parliament, Government, Ministries, other central or local public institutions or authorities”. Consequently, the statement on income and property of the Head of State for the year 2010 must be posted on Presidency's official website, the statements of the deputies – on Parliament's website, those of ministers – on Government's website, etc.

Note: Within the campaign „Fortune at sight”, API urges dignitaries to announce their statements on income and property earlier, sending them in scanned version to the email address api@api.md.

Every week, API shall issue press releases with the names of dignitaries and public officials who have accepted to make public their estate.

Statements are public, but... confidential

The Law foresees the publication only of the total value of property declared and the list of all goods, stipulating that this does not stand for confidential information. „The Central Control Committee (CCC) for statements of income and property shall publish a part of the information from statements, such as the total value of properties and list of owned estate, but not the integral statement. The data on the yearly income or address of estate, or any other information, can be disclosed only with the dignitaries' prior consent. The Law clearly stipulates the statements should be made public only in relation to certain ruling officials, such as ministers, deputies etc. But, generally, the integral statement can be made public only if the high official wishes so”, Vadim Enicov, member of CCC, specified.

The journalists believe that Law no. 1264 contains plenty of contradictions. „Article 9, paragraph 4 foresees the obligation to publish the statements on income and property integrally on websites only for judges. The other dignitaries, according to Article 13, shall publish only the overall value of property declared and list of all estate. For the rest, the statement is a confidential document. Moreover, Article 14 stipulates the responsibility and accountability of officials for the publicly-spread information. Another irrationality refers to the model of statement, mentioning that, nevertheless, it is a public document, whereas Article 6 says the statement is a personal and confidential document, which can not be made public. The Law is full of contradictions and had to be amended and improved much earlier”, Cristina Cojocaru, Secretary of Anti-Corruption Alliance, declared.

Left the jobs, but did not file any statements

The Law obliges all dignitaries who resigned / were dismissed or whose public mandate expired to submit statements on income and property. We tried to identify the names of officials who left their jobs, but had not filed statements on income and property. „The names of those officials who left their jobs and did not submit statements on income are not secret. But now we have a tremendous bulk of work, there are several thousands of statements which must be checked…”, in such a way Vadim Enicov explained his refusal to provide us with the list of ex-dignitaries who “forgot” to observe the provisions of the law.

Incomplete Committee

The Central Control Committee (CCC) together with the Center for Fighting Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCCEC) follows to check the statements filed by dignitaries, so that CCC could further on announce publicly a part of the data contained in statements. Up to this moment, however, CCC was not fully constituted. The Parliament must delegate another three representatives for this Committee, as the Government and Presidency did. „Most likely, on February 10 when the next sitting of the Parliament is due to occur, the MPs shall adopt the decision on the delegation of three representatives on behalf of the Parliament, in order to fully constitute the Committee. Even if the composition of the Committee is incomplete, this Committee collects the statements, registers and verifies them. Although the deadline for submitting statements on income and property expired, they still continue to arrive by post”, Vadim Enicov declares.

Diana Lungu, API special reporter

Contact tel. no.: 22-09-96

source: www.api.md