Mistakes or inconsistencies are often found in wealth declarations and personal interests forms submitted by MPs. Sometimes, their statements reflect donations to the party, which are not justified by their income, while at other times they do not state the company founder status of their spouses, relatives or themselves, in companies which are involved with public funding. These findings were published in the third report chapter elaborated within the "Strategic litigation to ensure the integrity of the elected officials" project, implemented by the Centre for Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC).
During a press club, Galina Bostan, CAPC chair, said that the content analysis of wealth and interests declarations, submitted by MPs, shows that parliamentarians have a tendency to diminish the value of their wealth. "These tendencies are generated by the temporal character of the elective office and by the favourable general perception of the public towards more modest MPs. Additionally, the content analysis of wealth and interests declarations shows a trend to omit the declaration of some items, MPs mostly filling in verifiable income", said Galina Bostan.
The report findings show that justice sector representatives fill in with increased diligence and accuracy all their income, including likely income, the income of their spouses, as well as wealth management activities. Thus, judges and prosecutors frequently indicate loans, including interest-free loans, car loans and donations from close people. Justice sector representatives are the only group that constantly declare items that can't be verified.
CAPC filed complaints with the National Integrity Authority regarding 25 persons who hold or have held public office. Ten complaints refer to current MPs, while another complaint concerns a former MP. The remaining complaints involve two mayors, three district presidents, three mayoral candidates, two prosecutors and a judge in office, a former prosecutor, a former judge and a former central public authority representative.
The report was developed following the implementation of the projects "Integrity of local elected officials and of the electoral process in the 2019 local general elections" (August-October 2019) and the "Strategic litigation to ensure the integrity of the elected officials" (November 2019-April 2020) by CAPC, with the support of the Soros Foundation Moldova.
