CSJ declares inadmissible the appeal filed by former Education Minister Lilia Pogolșa, found to have violated the legal regime of conflicts of interest

Magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) declared inadmissible the appeal filed by former Education Minister Lilia Pogolșa against a decision of the Chisinau Court of Appeal, which rejected her request to annul the act of the National Integrity Authority (ANI) in which she was found with conflict of interest.

The decision was handed down on 11 January by the Civil, Commercial and Administrative Jurisdiction College of the Supreme Court of Justice, composed of judges Ala Cobăneanu, Nina Vascan and Nicolae Craiu.

The CSJ judges mention in the ruling that Lilia Pogolșa did not comply with the legal provisions and filed an unsubstantiated request for appeal, without highlighting “the reasons for the illegality and unreasonableness of the appealed decision, limiting herself only to expressing her disagreement with the decision rendered in the appeal”, for which the appeal filed by her was declared inadmissible.

“(…) In an appeal, it is not sufficient simply to state the disagreement with the court’s decision, but it is necessary to state the grounds of illegality on which the appeal is based, since the grounds of appeal do not simply mean expressing dissatisfaction with the decision, but also setting out all the reasons why, from the party’s point of view, the court has rendered an unfounded decision (…)”, the document states.

On December 29, 2021, Pogolșa filed with the Chisinau Court of Appeals a request for legal action against ANI for the annulment of the act that found the violation of the legal regime of conflicts of interest.

On 9 June 2022, the Chisinau Court of Appeal rejected as unfounded the action filed by Pogolșa. Subsequently, the former education minister appealed the ruling to the CSJ.

On 21 December 2021, ANI’s integrity inspector found a conflict of interest admitted by Lilia Pogolșa, who also previously held the position of Minister of Education.

The integrity inspector established then that in 2019, former Minister of Education Lilia Pogolșa had concluded a service contract as a natural person with the Institute of Education Sciences where she was acting as interim director. The contract was signed through a third party with the deputy director of the institution. Thus, according to ANI, Pogolșa provided services of coordination of the scientific researcher in the framework of postdoctoral studies, while also acting as interim director of the same institution.

“For the services rendered, Pogolșa would have been remunerated with a total amount of more than 100 thousand lei,” ANI officials said.

Lilia Pogolșa did not declare the conflict of interest situation to ANI, nor did she refrain from signing this contract until she received a solution from the integrity inspector, the institution’s representatives said.

Under the new changes to ANI legislation, the integrity inspector had previously announced that he could only impose a fine for failure to declare a conflict of interest within the time limit laid down by law.