President’s statements on measures announced following abuses at MoldATSA

Everything we have managed to achieve so far has been thanks to people’s trust. I know that in these past days this trust has suffered greatly. The abuses at MoldATSA, as well as other departures from common decency that have occurred, are incompatible with my values and with our goal of building European institutions.

I understand people’s anger – it is legitimate. I am angry too, probably even more than others.

I want to be very clear: preferential treatment, undeserved benefits, and the waste of public money are unacceptable. The fact that such actions were committed by a person from my entourage makes the situation worse and obliges me to act with even greater firmness.

I say this with complete sincerity: I did not know about these abuses, but that is not an excuse and it shows that what happened represents a systemic error that requires immediate intervention.

First – the way people are appointed to leadership positions in important institutions. Unfortunately, we must admit that it is sometimes extremely difficult to find people for certain positions – people who have sufficient managerial experience, specific competencies for these roles, and integrity. That is why we have institutions where leaders have been serving in acting positions for many years – because suitable people who could meet these requirements could not be found. As we can see, some fraudsters have exploited this difficulty in identifying the right people. There is a risk that there may be more.

Therefore, this vulnerability must be corrected quickly. As a priority, the way people are appointed to key positions must be rethought; obtaining security clearances from the Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) and the National Anticorruption Center (CNA) must become mandatory, and all information about previous professional experience must be verified, with references obtained from previous employers.

Second – the oversight of the activity of state-owned enterprises and their leaders.

I know that in the recent period several state-owned enterprises have achieved good performance, and this must be acknowledged. But performance is not the same everywhere. And even where there are good results, there are risks of abuse, as we have seen at MoldATSA.

To correct things, the Government must take several measures:


	

	
First, review all boards of directors, reduce the number of their members, ensure that a person can sit on only one board, not several, and make sure that the remuneration of board members is regulated. Most boards have salary levels of a few thousand lei. I am referring to those with exaggerated and unjustified remuneration.
	
	

	
For each state-owned enterprise, performance indicators must be published, and reporting on these indicators should be carried out every six months.
	
	

	
Implement a plan to list minority share packages on the stock exchange both in the Republic of Moldova and on regional markets for qualifying assets. This will bring more transparency and corporate governance in line with international standards.
	
	

	
Publish annually: financial statements, external audit reports, the Board of Directors’ report, management remuneration, and the procurement report.
	
	

	
Separate productive assets (companies with commercial potential) from passive ones (land, assets in insolvency proceedings, real estate). The Public Property Agency must be split into two separate entities – one to manage enterprises that have the potential to generate profit, to modernize them and increase their value, and another entity to manage the remaining properties.
	


In the short term, it is necessary to carry out checks in all state-owned enterprises to verify how money is being used. Here I am referring primarily to salaries and public procurement. It is true that some positions require special competencies to manage complex processes, and in such cases salaries must be appropriate; however, performance must not mean abuse. The Government must intervene to draw a clear line between fair, competitive remuneration and damaging the state budget.

Third – all abuses must be sanctioned. We see that the CNA is investigating the situation at MoldATSA and has published a report analyzing conflicts of interest, fraudulent use of funds, favoritism towards certain economic agents, hiring without competitions where competitions were mandatory, unjustified bonuses and salary supplements, and many other issues. Even though I do not have the authority to tell oversight institutions what to do, I am publicly calling on the Tax Office, the CNA, and other relevant institutions to rigorously verify the legality of actions, regardless of party affiliation, kinship, or other ties. Nothing can serve as a shield to justify abuses. And any amount obtained undeservedly or through abuse must be returned to the state. All those who did wrong must be held accountable.

With regard to consultants financed from external assistance – we need external support especially to help institutions in the process of European integration. There is a huge amount of work and we need additional people. The State Chancellery must review all consultancy contracts and ensure that these contracts correspond to the needs of the institutions and that all of them deliver quality products.

I know that all of us – the Government, Parliament, and other institutions – are in a race against time to fulfill our European commitments, but while we are focused on this intense effort, we must not lose sight of other important matters.

This is a test of integrity and honesty for us, and we have the duty to pass this test by demonstrating through actions that we have not deviated from ethical values. We will conduct a thorough clean-up – everyone who has broken the law will be punished.

My message to the people from PAS is to look around and make sure that all team members, at all levels, remain loyal to the values on which the party was founded – European values.

We have an obligation to take the Republic of Moldova into the European Union – this path is too important, and we have made too many efforts along the way to fail now.

We must repair all breaches, carry out a clean-up in institutions – I refer especially to leadership positions – and restore people’s trust in our commitment to build a just state and a free, European country.