For the first time in Moldova, the Chamber of Accounts will conduct an external public audit in the field of natural gas.
This is provided for by the draft Law on External Public Audit in the field of natural gas, which the parliament adopted on Thursday in the first reading. The document stipulates that the audit will be carried out in relation to 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 draft law on external public audit in the field of natural gas, the audited entities, regardless of their form of ownership and organizational and legal form, are obliged to allow the presence of auditors of the Accounts Chamber on their territory without restrictions, to provide direct and free access in due time to digitized information, databases data necessary for the proper performance of the audit mission in accordance with this mandate. The audited entities must ensure the submission of information, data, regulations and necessary documents in the format and within the time period required by the Accounts Chamber. It is assumed that in order to exercise the powers provided for by this law, the Accounts Chamber should have unrestricted access to the processing of personal data and information containing commercial secrets. The audit report based on the results of the external public audit, as well as the decision of the Accounting Chamber on the approval of the opinion, must be submitted to the Parliament of Moldova by October 31, 2022. It is assumed that the law will come into force from the day it is published in the Monitorul Oficial. “We want to better understand how this area was administered, how contracts were concluded and investments were made,” said Radu Marian, Vice-Chairman of the Commission for Economy, Budget and Finance. The deputy clarified that the relevant external public audit in the field of natural gas differs from the debt audit agreed with Gazprom in the protocol of negotiations on the supply of natural gas, which will be conducted by an independent international company selected by the Moldovan government.// 09.12.2021 — InfoMarket
