Moldova to reduce the pressure of state control on economic agents and increase the efficiency of inspections.
During a briefing on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization Dumitru Alaiba presented the relevant package of legislative amendments, which is part of the deregulation program and is aimed at reducing the burden of state control over business, promoting efficient and abuse-free control. According to the draft, entrepreneurs will be able to challenge decisions of controlling authorities in court, which will prevent unjustified loss of time and money. Sanctions are introduced for abuses of inspectors and internal supervision of controlling bodies will be improved. It is proposed to distinguish between "recommendations" and "instructions" of inspectors and to introduce an obligation to include recommendations in inspection protocols. This will reduce the time spent by entrepreneurs on eliminating and preventing violations, as well as reduce the number of fines. Companies will be offered "crisis management plans" to manage control measures in emergency situations. Annual control plans will be harmonized to take into account different types of economic agents and risks (today, two plans are being developed in parallel - one for resident economic agents and one based on risks in general conditions). The conditions for unplanned inspections will be revised and specific grounds for inspecting economic agents that deliberately evade control will be included. In case of clear violations of the procedure, control can be terminated from the office, and in certain situations, for example, while waiting for laboratory results, the inspection can be suspended. The law on state control will also apply to persons who are not economic agents. Currently, the purpose of the law is limited to the protection of the environment and the life, health and property of citizens, but protection of a number of other fundamental rights and freedoms protected by the Constitution is proposed. The legislation will also be clarified to enable the controlling body to initiate the procedure for establishing the fact of an offense in accordance with the procedure and on the grounds provided for in the Code on Offenses, ensuring a clearer distinction between the act of inspection and the fact of an offense. Thus, the supervisory authority will act as an ascertaining agent and will strictly check only the information/objects that are necessary to establish the fact of an offense, and will not have broad supervisory powers. According to Dumitru Alaiba, the amendments proposed by the draft law will contribute to reducing the time spent on control procedures by at least 57 thousand man-hours per year, which, along with the reduction of the number of sanctions and possible situations of abuse by controlling bodies, will save entrepreneurs at least 70 million lei per year. Also, the risks of corruption will be significantly reduced. At the same time, the state will promote tools for quick correction of economic agents' mistakes and their voluntary compliance with all norms and obligations. The draft law will promote more efficient and clear control by the controlling body, prevent situations of evasion or blocking of state control procedures. "The control system should be adapted to the realities, effective and fair, and carried out not arbitrarily, but taking into account risk factors," emphasized Dumitru Alaiba. The project is being consulted until October 2: https://goo.su/YGWo. // 21.09.2023 - InfoMarket.
