GAB is pleased to welcome this post on political finance in Moldova by the Independent Anti-Corruption Advisory Committee. Established by reformist President Maia Sandu in 2021, the committee reports regularly on Moldova’s progress in curbing corruption and what more needs to be done. Thanks to its members expertise and their independence, its work carries great weight — both within Moldova and the international community.

The most recent report addresses perhaps the most challenging issue any democracy faces: enforcement of the rules governing contributions to and expenditures by political candidates and political parties. A challenge all the greater in Moldova as post-Soviet oligarchs have yet to be fully tamed and Russia continues to pour black money into campaigns to strengthen anti-Ukraine, pro-Russian candidates.

The report is here, the committee’s summary below.

The lack of continuous institutional commitment to performing oversight duties stems from the instability and frequent changes of government and of the political landscape and from the porosity between party and civil service. There is little incentive to be firm on those in power and decisive in strict oversight of those in the opposition as they can easily, and often do, switch places after the next elections.

Against this background, our report examines political parties’ sources of funding, expenditures, disclosure procedures, reporting and transparency of accounts. It reflects the media presence as an asset and its role in monitoring and advertising political campaigns and parties. The mandate of oversight bodies, with prevalence of Central Electoral Commission is thoroughly examined. Vulnerabilities related to undue influence of interest groups and affluent individuals, third party funding, foreign funding and its influence and prevalence of cash transactions and use of cryptocurrency are being tackled.

Consequently, a set of 52 recommendations is put forward whose implementation will facilitate the process of achieving the goals on disclosure requirements, oversight of the financing of election campaigns and of political parties and the state funding. The report is based on qualitative analysis of relevant legislation, documents, and relevant reviews as well as on quantitative analysis of the data from the political parties’ annual financial reports and final campaign finance reports.

This is the third report of the CCIA. The previous ones analyzed the factors which led to systemic fraud and money laundering in the Moldovan banking, financial and insurance system and the architecture of the anticorruption institutions. A forthcoming report will assess high-level corruption in state owned enterprises.