The Moldovan political parties are perceived as some of the most corrupt organizations. About 75% of the respondents of the Global Corruption Barometer for Moldova consider the parties are corrupt and extremely corrupt. The data were provided by Transparency International Moldova, IPN reports.
By the level of corruption, the political parties are outstripped only by the judicial system, Parliament and the police. The credibility of parties is rather low. Only 14.2% of the respondents have confidence in parties. This is due to a number of problems concerning the independence, transparency and responsibility parties and the fulfillment of the anticorruption commitments made by them.
Though the legal framework offers generally a favorable environment for founding and running political parties, there is confusion about the activities that can be performed by parties, while the implementation of the norms on direct financial support from the state, which was several times postponed, will start only in 2015 or 2017. The legal provisions concerning the responsibilities of parties are deficient, while the reports are too general and aren’t subject to external audit. The capacities of the authorities empowered to check the political parties and to prevent frauds are insufficient.
Even if the parties are accused of using undeclared money, including for salaries and honorariums, and of falsifying the names of donors, no investigation or punishment followed. Such a state of affairs is explained by the political influence exerted on the law enforcement bodies and the legal system.
Transparency International Moldova recommends defining the provisions concerning the activities that can be carried out by parties so as to ensure their non-profit character, implementing the norms on the allocation of money from the state budget to parties, and increasing transparency in the financing of parties and election campaigns.
