Adrian Albu
Rights and benefits of deputies
According to the law on the status of MPs, in order to ensure the effective fulfillment of the mandate, MPs are entitled to a monthly salary, travel and other compensatory payments in the amount established by the Permanent Bureau. The basic salary of a deputy is just over 16 thousand lei. He can also count on 13,000 lei per month to pay for consultants and protocol expenses. In addition, 10 thousand lei are provided for transportation if the deputy decides not to use his official car. But it should be taken into account that if he/she still prefers to use the official vehicle, there is a certain mileage limit.
“Practice shows that deputies working in very remote regions most often prefer service cars. Because even if the limit is exhausted, the deputy can submit a request to the general secretary of the parliament and the speaker with a request for additional fuel. If a deputy, for example, is responsible for Oknica or Briceni, and on Monday he is scheduled to receive citizens, then, of course, his car consumes more fuel than a deputy working in the central part of the country. Of course, there are those who do not go anywhere,” says Adrian Albu.
A deputy without permanent residence registration in the capital is provided with an office apartment for the term of the mandate. Or he is paid a tax-free monthly allowance for rent. The parliament has its own 8-story hotel building with about 25 apartments. At no time has it ever been the case that all the rooms are fully occupied. Moreover, even the staff of the parliamentary secretariat can take advantage of this opportunity if they have no accommodation in Chisinau.
A deputy is entitled to annual paid vacation, leave for personal reasons and sick leave. The annual paid vacation of 36 working days (with a six-day working week) is granted to a deputy, as a rule, during the Christmas and summer vacations. That is, deputies will be sent on vacation as soon as they start work. I wish they had time to pass the budget….
For the term of the deputy’s mandate, the labor contract of the deputy is suspended. Upon expiration of the mandate, he is guaranteed the same job.
Sanctions and regulations
There are also sanctions. Absence of a deputy without a valid reason during one month at three meetings of the parliament or the standing committee to which he is a member is punishable by withholding 50% of his salary and other payments for the next month. Absence from four or more meetings is subject to 75% withholding. In the last legislature, only members of the Shor faction were seriously penalized. Some other deputies were penalized only for absences from meetings of committees of which they are members.
Parliament carries out its activities in plenary sessions, commissions and factions, as a rule, according to the following schedule: Monday – work with voters (reception of citizens, visits to regions); Tuesday – meetings of parliamentary factions; Wednesday – meetings of standing commissions; Thursday and Friday – plenary sessions.
According to the law, the work schedule of deputies is irregular, so it is impossible to determine the exact hours when they should be at work and at what time to start this or that activity. It is worth adding that smoking is strictly prohibited in the parliament building – deputies will have to go out into the courtyard if they want to.
Meetings of commissions, although usually scheduled for a specific time, are often held at hours convenient to the chairperson of the commission.
“In the past convocation, unfortunately, there were often situations when deputies did not have time to come to the meeting of the commission, because it was appointed so unexpectedly that they simply did not have time to check their e-mail. Therefore, it would be advisable to establish clear days and hours of commission meetings, which should be strictly observed. Unfortunately, in practice, the chairman of the commission often has personal discretion in setting the time of meetings,” said Adrian Albu.
Plenary sessions are traditionally held on Thursdays and Fridays. However, their convening, as practice has shown, depends to a large extent on the personal discretion of the speaker. When he saw fit, sittings could be held twice a week, and sometimes one every two weeks. Everything depended on the number of bills, their relevance, necessity and priority, and the agenda.
“In general, parliament provides MPs with all the tools they need to work. They have all the necessary props and office equipment, the ability to hire experts if necessary. Deputies never face a situation when they cannot complete what they have started because of the lack of resources provided by the secretariat,” Albu specified.
As for foreign trips, the deputies have enough opportunities to participate in professional forums and conferences. The only difficulty arose during the pandemic: at that time, a strict budget was imposed and there was virtually no travel, including to us.
Political overtones and control
But, as the former secretary general of the parliament notes, there are problems related to the political plane: “In the previous parliament, many deputies never traveled abroad, because it was decided by the speaker Igor Grosu. In other words, there is no clear and obligatory mechanism – everything depends to a large extent on his personal discretion. I think this is abnormal: regardless of the wishes or reluctance of the Speaker, the MP represents the will of the people. Even if the Speaker considers foreign trips too expensive, a deputy should still have the opportunity to participate in them, if such trips bring real benefit, help exchange experience, strengthen international ties and are used in the professional and state interests. And parliamentarians should enjoy this right not on a residual principle, but on an equal basis”.
The total expenses for business trips of the MPs of the XI convocation and the staff of the secretariat in the first half of 2025 amounted to 2.615 million lei. The most expensive were the trips to Strasbourg to participate in the sessions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), where the delegation is the most representative and the sessions are held four times a year. This is one of the few international tribunes where representatives of the Moldovan opposition are listened to and given the opportunity to express the country’s position from an alternative point of view.
Overall, the parliament’s budget for 2025 was adjusted to 215.3 million lei. Of this sum, almost half is the salary of the secretariat staff (113.8 million lei).
The “cleanliness” of the new parliament was promised to be closely monitored by public organizations. The Association of Independent Press (API) will hire two independent national experts to elaborate the document “Charter of Clean Parliament 2025”.
“Initiatives like this are really useful. Promo-LEX does an excellent job trying to make a constructive and correct analysis. Thanks to their efforts, many irregularities and deviations have been identified. And if the speaker wants to look like a good organizer of parliamentary processes, he should at least sometimes listen to such recommendations. The only question is how seriously it is taken. Recommendations of the Venice Commission are also useful, but what good are they if the authorities either interpret them in their own way or do not notice them at all? It is sad to see when such reports turn into mere statistics, instead of serving as a tool to prevent violations, improve efficiency and strengthen democracy and transparency,” said Adrian Albu.
When asked what advice he would give to aspiring MPs, the former head of the Parliament Secretariat said: “to read draft laws before voting for them.
