The Republic of Moldova has signed the International Treaty on the exchange of data for the purpose of verifying wealth declarations
October 23, 2023, Chisinau – The anti-corruption institutions of the Republic of Moldova, through the National Integrity Authority, will be able to exchange data with other states in the process of verifying declarations of wealth and personal interests. The Minister of Justice, Veronica Mihailov-Moraru, together with the president of the Regional Anticorruption Initiative (RAI), Laura Ștefan, signed the International Treaty on the exchange of data for the purpose of verifying wealth declarations.
In the press statements held after the official signing ceremony of the Treaty, the Minister of Justice, Veronica Mihailov-Moraru, mentioned that the document constitutes a regional cooperation mechanism and a common platform, which will serve as a tool for the National Integrity Authority (ANI ), to request and transmit, at the same time, between the signatory states, data on people’s assets.
“The Republic of Moldova, like most states of the world, obliges civil servants to submit declarations of assets and interests, which aim to prevent and early detection of abuses of dignitaries and civil servants in personal interest. Although the law obliges them to indicate movable and immovable assets owned abroad, as well as bank accounts, many of them avoid doing so, given that the National Integrity Authority can only access national databases. Thanks to this treaty, the authorities will have the necessary levers to check the assets and incomes abroad of the dignitaries and civil servants, which will lead to the simplification of the existing processes and the reduction of the time and resources of the state authorities”, emphasized Veronica Mihailov-Moraru.
Also, the Minister of Justice thanked RAI President, Laura Ștefan, for the opportunity to strengthen the cooperation of the Republic of Moldova with the institution she leads.
“It is a very important step, especially in the current context, when our country has concentrated its efforts in increasing the efficiency of the mechanisms for ensuring the integrity of the justice system and fighting corruption”, Minister Mihailov-Moraru also mentioned.
According to the document, the exchange of data is voluntary, and the information can only be used for the purpose of verifying wealth declarations. The treaty is to be submitted to the Parliament for ratification.
