Moldovan top court says subsidisation system in agriculture hit by deficiencies

Chisinau, 9 December /MOLDPRES/ - The Court of Accounts (CCRM) has said the present subsidisation system in agriculture was hit by deficiencies and irregularities. The Court considered an audit report on conformity concerning the subsidisation of agriculture in 2013.

Among the deficiencies and irregularities highlighted by the Court, there are the lack of measurable objectives for assessing the subsidisation, giving instructions on earmarking subventions in the absence of the full set of documents established according to rules, lack of a clear-cut, coherent and standardised procedure regarding the checking of the compliance of the application on subsidisation with the eligibility criteria, non-uniform enforcement of the normative framework.

The audit also ascertained the lack of economic and financial grounds at the Agriculture and Food Ministry for selecting the subsidisation sectors, as well as the absence of information and grounds which stayed at the basis of setting the subsidisation mechanism, especially the eligibility conditions, subsidisation ceilings and the share of subsidy of the investment value.

Also, according to CCRM, the regulation on subsidising farmers abounds in gaps and overlappings. The audit found out operational deficiencies also in the work of the Agency for Interventions and Payments in Agriculture. Thus, although starting from 2011, the public authorities were to enforce the financial management and control system, the Agency presently is just in the initial stage of the latter's introduction, which shows the need to speed up this process, according to the Court.

The fund for farmers' subsidisation amounted to over 450 million lei in 2013.