The representatives of several state institutions, national and international experts, members of the associative sector and High-Level Advisors of the European Union will form a joint team in developing and implementing the National Program of Criminal Assets Recovery. The basic objective of the policies document is speeding up the criminal assets recovery processes from crimes, including the embezzled money from the financial-banking system, as well as other resonant cases. Every party, involved in the process, will have the roles and responsibilities in elaborating the Program, that is to be approved by the Parliament by the end of this year.

According to the director of the NAC, Iulian Rusu, the elaboration of this strategic document is conditioned, first of all, by the slow evolution of the criminal assets recovery and lack of these progresses, expected by the entire society. “It is our obligation, of the state institution, to foster the processes, to find new methods and tools to accelerate investigations, new platforms of communication and allies in achieving the joint goal. Only through concerted efforts we can accomplish the goals, expected by the whole society. We have a lot to do together and we need to focus ort efforts on eliminating obstacles that stagnate the assets recovery process. I am convinced that we have due diligence and necessary expertise to boost this process, to give new powers to the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency of the NAC and to join in an important mission. Last but not least, our results also depend on the macro-financial assistance, the beneficiary of which is our country ", said the head of CNA.

The initiative to elaborate the Country Strategy Paper and enhance the efficiency of the institutions responsible of financial assets recovery was welcomed by all the participants of the event. They expressed their readiness to fully get involved in the activity process of the working groups, though the formulation of legislative proposals, through qualitative expertise and consultancy. In his speech, the Government representative declared that for the entire governmental team, the criminal assets recovery and compensation for citizens is the priority. “We have two important projects, that we rely on a lot. One of them is to redefine the competences of the CARA, and the other is to apply extended confiscation. The Constitutional Court, by its decision, gave additional power to the criminal assets recovery process, including those from abroad. We will also be involved legislatively and diplomatically to support this joint initiative”, the representative of the Executive mentioned.

The advisor to the President of the Republic of Moldova, Claudine Justafre, also emphasized that there are high expectations from a new mechanism of criminal assets recovery but also from courts that need to ensure the finality of the dossiers on cases of public interest. “The Presidency has given assurance that it will support every initiative of the authorities to recover criminal assets, and the people directly involved in this process will benefit from the necessary support from the state”, pointed out the High Level Advisor.

We precise that the National Program of Criminal Assets Recovery is to be implemented in the period 2022-2027 and is based on three strategic objectives: strengthening the system by making necessary amendments to the legislation and creating the recovery platform, creating the mechanism of assets repatriation and raising the perception of assets recovery to the level of combatting corruption. Three working groups have been created to elaborate the document, that will include the representatives of the legal institutions, ministries, other competent authorities, Parliament delegates, specialized prosecution offices, the National Bank, the Superior Council of Magistrates, the Office for Prevention and Fight against Money Laundering.

The secretariat of the working groups will be provided by the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency under the National Anticorruption Center.