Several employees of ASP, suspected of having sold their vote in the elections. Reaction of the Director of the Agency
Forty employees of the Public Services Agency (ASP) are suspected of having been involved in electoral corruption actions. According to the ASP, they would have received funds through the PSB application from the Russian Federation, in exchange for the votes cast in the October 20 elections. Contacted by the "Teleradio-Moldova" Company, the director of the institution, Mircea Eșanu, stated that all the persons concerned were suspended from their positions, and currently, in addition to the investigation by the legal authorities, a service investigation was started, to see if they did not commit other internal illegalities.
"ASP received on October 31, 2024, a notification from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, which establishes that there is a suspicion that 40 employees of the institution had connections and received money from the Russian Federation through the PSB application, facts that are being verified within a criminal case", reads the institution's press release .
In this context, ASP announced that a service investigation was started on this case, and the employees were dismissed. The decision was taken considering "the reasonable suspicion of participation in the electoral corruption, but also the fact that the respective persons have access to the data from the critical state registers, under the management of the ASP".
The director of the ASP, Mircea Eșanu, told the "Teleradio Moldova" Company that most of the employees suspected of electoral corruption are from the multifunctional centers in the districts in the south of the country, and their access to the registers and systems of the institution was blocked. "From this moment, the official investigation begins," said the ASP director, stressing that the institution will firmly combat any attempt of employees to collaborate with criminal structures. "We take all precautions to fight the phenomenon of corruption and will not tolerate the involvement of staff in such activities. We had discussions with the General Police Inspectorate and the Prosecutor's Office for several days and we have carefully prepared the plan to succeed in suspending them from their positions", said the director.
Moreover, Eșanu said that two parallel actions are currently taking place: the internal investigation, to check whether the employees did not use or leak information and whether they did not commit irregularities as ASP employees, and the investigation carried out by the investigation bodies, which analyze the process from an administrative and criminal point of view.
