Promo-LEX Report association says at least 20 million lei in expenditures hidden by political parties of Moldova in 2024

Political parties in 2024 concealed expenditures of at least 20 million lei, which were not reported to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC). As much as 81 percent of them are attributed to the Political Bloc Victorie (Victory). These findings are contained in the Monitoring Report, Financing of Political Parties in  Moldova. Retrospective of 2024, conducted by the Promo-LEX association.

According to the report, the Political Bloc Victory and its constituents (FASM, PR, PPV, and CHANCE), which had costly political activities, reported "zero" revenues and expenditures.

Similarly, unreported expenditures were also estimated for other parties, such as the Moldovan Party of Socialists (PSRM) (8%), while Our Party (PN), Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), European Social Democratic Party (PSDE), and The Future of Political Party (PPVM) - 2% each.

As for revenues, for the past year, 36 parties reported revenues of 70.2 million lei, of which only 16.2 million lei came from membership fees and donations. Three parties (PAS, PSRM, and PN) reported 74 per cent of total revenues, while the other 33 parties accounted for only 26 per cent.

The main sources of funding remain: state budget allocations (75per cent), donations from individuals (17 per cent), donations from legal entities (3 per cent), revenues from economic activities (3 per cent) and membership fees (2 per cent).

"Compared to 2023, even though we notice a slight decrease in the share of political parties' funding from state budget allocations (75 per cent in 2024 against versus 84 per cent in 2023), we consider that they are still too dependent on this source of funding. Meanwhile, revenues from fees and donations have increased," the Promo-LEX report reads.

Conversely, donations increased significantly in 2024, almost tripling compared to 2023. Eighty four per cent of them came from individuals and 16 per cent - from legal entities.

According to the present legal framework, the CEC must verify the existence of revenues declared by donors in the case of donations exceeding three average salaries per economy. According to the report, 44 donors complied with the aforementioned provisions, which represented only 26 per cent of donations from individuals. Following verification by the CEC and the State Tax Service, most donations were deemed compliant.

For 2024, 39 parties reported total expenditures of over 71 million lei. They were directed towards programmes for youth and women, remuneration, and maintenance of premises. The highest expenditures were reported by PAS (47 per cent), PSRM (17 per cent), and PN (11 per cent).

In conclusion, Promo-LEX Association considers it necessary for political parties to diversify their sources of funding, thereby reducing dependence on public funding. At the same time, Promo-LEX recommends that parties more actively collect membership fees. These steps are necessary, in order to ensure more active involvement of citizens in the development of political parties as democratic institutions.

"We also continue to support the need for regulation of political and electoral funding by third parties. The new legal provisions have not addressed this issue, which, despite recommendations from the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR, remains unregulated. We reiterate that, in the context of Moldova's evaluation by the European Commission in November 2023, the importance of regulating political and electoral funding from sources of third parties was emphasized,"  Promo-LEX added.