Public interest enterprises of Moldova will be obliged to create company audit committees.
This is provided for by the relevant amendments to the current legislation, which were passed by the Parliament in the second reading. In particular, amendments are made to the Law on State Enterprises and Municipal Enterprises, the Law on Joint-Stock Companies, the Law on Limited Liability Companies, as well as other normative acts. The amendments clarify the powers and reporting requirements of the Audit Committee (in the case of public interest entities) and the Auditing Commission - controlling bodies of the state/municipal enterprise and public law entities. The bill provides for the establishment of more effective state control over public enterprises, as well as improvement of their activities, in particular through the mandatory creation of audit committees. It is stipulated that the audit control will be carried out throughout the year, unlike the usual audits, including those carried out by the Court of Accounts, or the control carried out by the censorship commission. Also, the bill contains measures to attract and motivate qualified professionals in the field of accounting and auditing to work in audit committees. The work of audit committee members will be paid and the amount of payment will be established by the founder/general meeting of the public interest entity. The procedures are also stipulated for the termination of payment of monthly allowances to a member of the board, audit commission or audit committee, whose powers have been suspended and/or employment relations with the state body which appointed him/her have been terminated. It is stipulated that the company's audit committee shall be mandatorily established by the subjects of public interest and shall act in accordance with the provisions of the legislation, the charter of the company and the regulations of the company's audit committee. The public interest entities include commercial banks, insurance/reinsurance companies, companies listed on the Stock Exchange, as well as certain categories of companies with state capital, depending on the share capital, number of employees and turnover. In addition, changes have been made whereby state and municipal enterprises will allocate part of their net profit to the formation of reserve capital and the development fund. The size of the reserve capital will be set in the charter, and it must amount to at least 10% of the company's charter capital. The reserve capital will be placed in assets with high liquidity, but it can only be used to cover a company's losses and/or increase its charter capital. The legislation also specifies the amount of deductions to the budget from the net profit of municipal and state enterprises: it cannot exceed the amount of net profit at the end of the reporting period and undistributed profit of previous years, minus any losses of previous years and minus amounts contributed to the reserve capital. The deadline for the payment of dividends and/or deductions to the budget from the net profit received by a public entity will be postponed from June 30 to August 30. // 03.04.2023 - InfoMarket.
