The European People’s Party of Moldova (PPEM) drafted a legislative initiative that more strictly regulates the inspection duties of the State Main Tax Inspectorate. The party says the illegalities committed by the administration of this Inspectorate must be stopped immediately, IPN reports.

The initiative contains amendments to the Law on State Inspections by which the State Tax Inspectorate is obliged to plan and announce the inspections beforehand and is banned from carrying out unplanned inspections without concrete reasons. The inspections at responsible taxpayers will be performed not more often than once in a year.

According to the PPEM, analyses show that about 70,000 inspections are performed annually (by 270 a day). Of these, 50,000 are unplanned. About 1/3 of the questioned economic entities said the goal of the inspections was to obtain money or goods, while the average length of an inspection was seven days. In the period, the work of the company is practically blocked.

PPEM chairman Iurie Leanca presented evidence of a conflict of interests involving the State Main Tax Inspectorate’s head Ion Prisacaru. Thus, Ion Prisacaru is the owner of the audit and consultancy firm Ecofin, which provides also such services as interaction with the fiscal bodies and analysis of possibilities of minimizing the fiscal burden. So, the Inspectorate’s head earned about 1 million lei dividends as the owner of a company among whose main activities are the connection with himself and the diminution of the efficiency of the public institution that he heads.

The MP said given such findings, they demand that Ion Prisacaru should be dismissed and that the National Integrity Commission should initiate verifications, while the National Anticorruption Center should perform investigations to determine if the administration of the Inspectorate does not misuse the power and does not cause damage to the state budget by diminishing the collected income taxes.