The Moldovan authorities are not transparent enough in managing the funds intended to fight the pandemic.
Such conclusions are contained in the report "COVID-19 Funds Management", which was prepared as part of the international research program Open Budget Survey. The study assesses COVID-19 fund management in 120 countries based on 26 metrics. In particular, there is a low degree of accountability and transparency of the Moldovan authorities in the use of funds to combat the pandemic, with minimal public participation, limited participation of legislators and audit institutions, and insufficient transparency in spending. According to the report, the approval in April 2020 of the emergency tax package by the Moldovan parliament is flawed on all three indicators analyzed in the study - transparency, oversight and participation. Thus, transparency is limited when approving and implementing a package of urgent measures, in particular, we are talking about identifying beneficiaries, identifying and using extrabudgetary resources and reporting. Oversight has also been limited, both by legislators and by national audit bodies. The level of public participation is minimal. At the same time, Moldova received a positive rating on three indicators reflected in the report: aggregate macroeconomic and budget information, sources of funding and procurement. The report says that globally by the end of 2020, the amount of funds allocated to overcome the pandemic reached about $ 14 trillion. More than two-thirds of central governments in 120 countries have failed to responsibly manage the emergency packages approved to tackle the pandemic and have not followed transparent procurement procedures. About half of the countries bypassed legislative procedures to introduce emergency packages, and only about 25% of national auditors published fast-track audit reports. At the same time, there are positive examples of responsible pandemic crisis management in the world, even with limited resources. The authors of the report cite the example of Paraguay, where all purchases related to the pandemic are published on a specialized website. Another 22 countries (Canada, Bangladesh, Togo, and others) noted the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women and published information on policies directed at women. Herewith, in Sierra Leone, the national auditor provided real-time audit data based on the experience of the Ebola crisis. The COVID-19 Global Fund Governance Report can be viewed at: www.internationalbudget.org/covid/. // 25.05.2021 — InfoMarket.
