Victoria Belous, Minister of Finance of RM
“Fraud prevention is our top priority. By launching this system, the Ministry of Finance is reinvigorating the work of the Anti-Fraud Commission and sending a clear message of zero tolerance for this phenomenon in the management of public money,” said Minister Victoria Belous.
The anti-fraud system was approved by the government on May 7 and will have three main components: the National Fraud Network, Whistleblowers and the Fraud Unit. The network will include institutions such as the State Chancellery, Ministry of Finance, Court of Accounts, National Council of RM, NBM, Prosecutor’s Office, etc.
The State Inspectorate of Financial Control, subordinated to the Ministry of Finance, is designated as the anti-fraud unit and the national contact point for cooperation with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).
In practice, this will mean close cooperation, joint risk assessment and data exchange between the coordinating agencies involved in financial control and supervision. The EU Delegation to Moldova and the European Anti-Fraud Office, whose representatives were present at the meeting, supported the implementation of the new tool and expressed their cooperation with the Moldovan authorities on this issue.
Moldova has committed to implement a public internal financial control (PIFC) system in line with EU best practices, which implies a major reform of the relevant services. The concept of the PIFC was developed by the EC as an operational model to assist the national authorities in modernizing the internal infrastructure to update the control systems in the public sector.
