Moldova probes state firm mismanagement and illicit board payouts
Moldovan lawmakers referred dozens of audit reports to prosecutors on Thursday, revealing widespread mismanagement of state-owned enterprises, unmonitored public assets, and officials unlawfully collecting up to €20,000 annually from multiple board seats.
Discrepancies across official registries
State agencies have reported conflicting figures on the total number of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), complicating comprehensive institutional reviews. Speaking in parliament, Dinu Plângău, chairman of the parliamentary inquiry commission on state companies, noted that while the State Tax Service registered 609 enterprises including municipal entities, the Public Services Agency listed 515, and the Public Property Agency (APP)—the primary administrator—recognized only 168.
“In 2017, the APP was established, and state enterprises were meant to pass under its authority by law,” Plângău said. “However, legal procedures were not completed properly, leaving over 300 enterprises unmanaged in institutional limbo.”
Lawmakers attributed the statistical discrepancies to entities that have existed solely on paper without conducting economic operations, as well as flawed legal succession following ministry reorganizations. In response, parliamentary investigators are assessing both formal and inactive enterprises to inventory state-owned real estate and prevent asset diversion.
“We face a major challenge here, and our objective is at least to recover real estate assets from inactive enterprises,” Plângău said. “In numerous instances, companies without economic activity still hold valuable public properties that remain entirely unmonitored.”
Illegal board seat accumulation and prosecutor referrals
The commission also uncovered systemic abuse regarding management board appointments across 1,648 existing board positions. Investigators identified six officials who simultaneously held more than the statutory limit of three board seats, with certain individuals sitting on eight, nine, or as many as 13 management boards concurrently.
Although monthly compensation per board is legally capped at the minimum monthly wage of 6,200 Moldovan lei (€310), combining multiple appointments allowed individual officials to accumulate annual earnings between 300,000 and 400,000 lei (€15,000 to €20,000; approx. $16,500 to $22,000).
“Typically, the remuneration received by an individual from a single enterprise was modest,” Plângău said. “However, by accumulating seats across numerous management boards, a single official took in between 300,000 and 400,000 lei annually.”
Severe irregularities identified by the Financial Inspection prompted the inquiry commission to send 25% of its violation reports directly to the Prosecutor General’s Office for criminal assessment. The parliamentary inquiry was launched following investigative reporting on high executive salaries and questionable recruitment practices at state air traffic service provider MoldATSA.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
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