The Independent Anti-Corruption Advisory Committee (CCIA) released today, September 23, 2024, the progress report for the CCIA report no. 3 "Financing of political parties and electoral campaigns in Moldova". During the event, the results of the implementation of the recommendations offered by the CCIA were presented and discussions and debates were organized with public authorities, civil society organizations and development partners.
Report no. 3 of the CCIA published in July 2023 identified legal, institutional and practical deficiencies of a legal, institutional and practical deficiencies in the systems of political financing in the Republic of Moldova and their impact on the functioning of a democratic state in which the Moldovan citizens enjoy governance through elected authorities free of undue influence of interest groups. The report looked at political parties' sources of funding, spending, disclosure procedures, reporting and transparency of accounts. In the Report, 52 Recommendations were offered to six institutions from the Republic of Moldova, aimed at improving the gaps and deficiencies identified by the CCIA.
12 months later, the CCIA team produced a progress report on the implementation of the recommendations, thus the rate of their implementation is as follows: 16 recommendations (31%) were fully implemented, 10 recommendations (19%) were partially implemented and 26 of recommendations (50%) were not implemented. The full progress report can be accessed here.
The Committee welcomes the efforts of the Central Electoral Commission (65% of recommendations fully or partially implemented) and the Government of the Republic of Moldova (100% of recommendations fully implemented) to implement the CCIA recommendations indicated in report no. 3. At the same time, the Committee urges the Parliament (29% of recommendations fully or partially implemented), the E-Governance Agency (one recommendation - partially implemented), the Court of Accounts (one recommendation - not implemented) and the People's Assembly of Gagauzia (one recommendation - not implemented) to intensify their efforts to implement the recommendations of the CCIA.
The recommendations that still need to be implemented: verification of donations to political parties and electoral competitors if they correspond to donation thresholds, creation of a mechanism for verification of donations from donors located abroad, regulation of advertising of electoral campaigns online, including on networks of social media, amending the legal framework to oblige political foundations to comply with the same income and expenditure rules and disclosure obligations as political parties, regulating the financing of political parties and election campaigns by third parties to prevent undisclosed financial support, creating a methodology of auditing the financial reports of political parties and certifying qualified auditors for political finances, developing a methodology on the management of state funds for political parties, developing a mechanism for controlling companies awarded with public contracts after elections to avoid conflicts of interest and ensure independence political parties with improper influence, etc.
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The Independent Anti-Corruption Advisory Committee (CCIA) was established in June 2021 by Presidential Decree as an independent body composed jointly and equally of prominent members of Moldova’s civil society and international anti-corruption and related experts. Its main purpose is to analyze systemic corruption issues that cut across Moldovan institutions and improve implementation of anti-corruption measures by appropriate stakeholders. The Committee performs research which is made public. Its recommendations are designed to optimize the effectiveness of the efforts of the Republic of Moldova in the fight against corruption. Subsequently, the CCIA assesses the implementation of such measures by state actors and other stakeholders in subsequent periodic published reports. The CCIA’s mission is to strengthen Moldova’s understanding of general and specific issues with respect to large-scale corruption and enhance the authorities’ capacity to take appropriate action to reduce, and one day to eliminate the burden of the problem on the citizens of the country.
