Moldova signs International Treaty on Exchange of Data for the Verification of Asset Declarations

Chisinau, 23 November /MOLDPRES/ - Justice Minister Veronica Mihailov-Moraru and the president of the Anticorruption Regional Initiative, Laura Stefan,  signed the International Treaty on Exchange of Data for the Verification of Asset Declarations in Chisinau today. The Treaty will allow Moldovan authorities verify the truthfulness of the data from the asset declarations.    

The document represents a mechanism of regional cooperation between the signatory states, in order to verify the asset declarations of the civil servants.  

"Through this document, decision-makers will strengthen the national mechanism of data verification and will contribute to a greater potential in the consolidation of Moldova’s institutional capacities. Although the law for more years has provided for the compulsoriness to declare the mobile assets and real estate, which are both in the country and abroad, we record multiple situations when the subjects of the declaring do not do this. This Treaty represents a mechanism of regional cooperation and will serve as an instrument for the state’s institutions to request and submit between the signatory states data on the assets of people, which is a guarantee of the simplification of the present procedures and a reduction of the time, effort and resources of the state’s authorities,’’ Justice Minister Veronica Mihailov-Moraru said.   

„I hope that the Treaty will open the way to a real cooperation between the administrative control institutions from different jurisdictions,’’ the president of the Anticorruption Regional Initiative, Laura Stefan, said after the document’s singing.    

Under the Treaty, the data which the sides can exchange include information taken over from the databases maintained by the public authorities or private entities on taxes and duties, bank accounts, financial titles, activities, companies, fiduciary funds and foundations, real estate, vehicles and other mobile equipment and intellectual copyrights.    

The first countries which signed this treaty in March 2021 were Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

Presently, nine member states of the region are part of the Treaty: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania and Serbia, plus one observer – United Mission in Kosovo.