The Moldovan government has supported the initiative to conduct a public audit in the field of natural gas by the Chamber of Accounts of Moldova.
The Cabinet of Ministers gave a positive opinion on the relevant bill, already approved by the parliament in the first reading. The bill provides for an audit of the activities of companies and organizations in the field of natural gas in terms of compliance of their activities and financial transactions with legal norms. The audit of the compliance of costs and capital investments in natural gas commercial companies will be carried out in derogation from the provisions of the Law on the Organization and Functioning of the Accounts Chamber and the Law on Joint Stock Companies, which stipulates that an audit can be carried out in relation to an organization of public interest and a company in which share of the state exceeds 50%. Since the state's share in the authorized capital of such enterprises is below 50%, the Accounts Chamber is currently limited in conducting an external public audit. According to the bill, the audited entities, regardless of their form of ownership and organizational-legal form, will be obliged to admit auditors of the Accounts Chamber to their territory, in a timely manner to provide them with direct and free access at an appropriate time to digitized information, databases necessary for the proper execution of the audit mission. The audited persons will have to provide unrestricted access to the processing of personal data and information containing commercial secrets. It is planned that the audit report based on the results of the external public audit, approved by the Chamber of Accounts, will be submitted to the Parliament of Moldova by October 31, 2022. // 22.12.2021 — InfoMarket
