MP Radu Marian (PAS) praised the report and the work of the center, noting the seriousness of the threat of electoral corruption and illegal party financing:
“I can’t imagine what would have happened if the institutions had failed to deal with this ‘cancer’ – electoral and political corruption, these hundreds of millions that have come to our country to bring us to our knees and subjugate us to the Kremlin.”
Deputy Speaker Vlad Batrincea (PSRM) questioned why the report did not mention other types of corruption, such as smuggling.
“For 2024 there are four cases, for 2025 there is only one case. So, we should understand that there is no more smuggling in Moldova?”, Batrincea asked.
Alexandru Pinzari, director of the National Anti-Corruption Center, replied that “smuggling is not within the competence of the center.” At the same time, he complained about the small number of the center’s officers.
“We have about 100 officers who deal with corruption. For the whole country, this is very few. Therefore, we cannot concentrate on all institutions at the same time.”
Pynzar said that measures to expand the staff of the center will be shifted in the near future, as “from 2023 we have added competencies, but the number of personnel remains the same.”
No “big” corruption?
Diana Caraman, PCRM deputy raised the issue of detecting corruption in the higher echelons of power:
“We do not have such cases. The point is not that we just want to, but that after the winter we see the holes in the roads. We see that in public procurement, for some reason technical workers are held accountable, while those who approve decisions remain untouched.”
She stressed that the current activity of the center looks politicized and said that she would like to see “more courage” in its work.
Lilian Karp (PAS) explained why the report does not contain information on top-level corruption – because it is reflected in the report of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
“No one is saying there are no thieves. Thieves have no political color. And it doesn’t matter that you were in power, that others came after you and that others will come after us…,” Karp stated.
It should be noted that, according to the Agency for the Recovery of Illegally Obtained Property (ARBI) of the National Anti-Corruption Center, in 2025, the total amount of seized funds across the country, imposed by all investigative bodies and prosecutors’ offices, amounted to about 905 million lei, and for bank fraud – 7.57 billion lei.
