At least 100 lei is the unofficial tax paid for the technical testing of a car. In order to have all the papers for one more year, the driver is forced to pull out of his pocket different amounts of money, even though the car he drives has no mechanical problems. The elements of this crime have reached the ‘ears’ of the Ministry of Transports and Road Management (MTGD). Adjusted “on paper” to the European standards, the ministry’s representatives seem to be above all concerned with the institution’s image.

Of the 500,000 means of transport in the Republic of Moldova, every car is tested once a year at one of the 33 private testing stations. These stations are authorised by the MTGD to issue documents certifying the technical condition of cars and trailers.

Compulsory as it is in the EU

According to the official rules, in order to assure secure road traffic safety, vehicles that don’t correspond to all technical standards should not be allowed on the road. Moreover, minister Ursu talked at a recent press conference about respecting Moldova’s commitments towards the reduction of the number of car accidents. He also mentioned that new technologies have been implemented for enhancing road traffic security and ensuring ecological circulation in the transport field. He also mentioned that the obligatory testing of cars is included in the National Implementation Program of the Republic of Moldova-European Union Action Plan for 2005-2006, “which was positively appreciated by the European experts.”

Thus, motorcycles must be tested every 12 months as well as motorcars that are used for personal or business purposes, lorries and vehicles with trailers. Once every six months for taxi cars, motorcars and trucks for drivers’ training purposes, minibuses, coaches and buses.

Ursu has repeatedly declared that this testing is performed according to European standards. According to him, the technical condition of cars should conform to 70 different indicators.

It seems that the automobiles circulating on the streets of Moldova correspond to the highest standards. Plenty of drivers have declared that, in reality, things are quite different. “During the technical examination, the representatives of stations ask the car drivers for certain illegal taxes for issuing documents certifying the motor vehicle’s technical condition,” drivers said. According to them, the illegally collected money is requested even if the vehicle’s technical condition is good and the official mandatory taxes are paid.

All papers in order for 100 lei

“I went to the testing centre on Calea Iesilor Street,” Anatol C. from Chişinău told us who, out of the nine testing stations in the capital chose the one on Calea Iesilor. There, the owner of a 1968 Niva motor car was forced to pay, except the official taxes, exactly 100 lei out of his salary of 1,200 lei. Anatol C. has conformed to the demands of this centre’s representatives even though his motor car, as he says, is in good technical condition. Otherwise, he would have been forced to give up not only his car, but his work as well, where he is in great need of a vehicle.

Constantin T. from Criuleni also received the documents certifying the good technical condition of his car for a payment of 100 lei, but without presenting his car to the Criuleni testing centre specialists. Even though minister Ursu declares that the technical testing takes place according to the highest standards, it seems that the real situation is different. Neither Ion P. from Chişinău nor his acquaintances have presented their cars at the testing stations. All problems are solved with the help of one intermediary, to whom you present the documents of the car. “In exchange of a couple of hundred lei,” Ion P. said. You drive with your documents in order and you forget about testing the car for another year.

The technical examination at ‘Linii Autotest’, the only centre for this kind of testing in Criuleni and Dubasari districts, may vary between a couple of hundred and a couple of thousand lei, depending on the car. After they have provided us information on the prices, the centre’s representatives denied any possibility of obtaining documents without inspecting the car. Other centres in Chişinău have also denied this accusation.

Nothing fixed ‘on the spot’

In order to verify the corruption, the representatives of the MTGD, to whom the functions of authorising, monitoring and controlling the mandatory testing stations are attributed, went “on the spot” on 14 Calea Iesilor Street. There, the ministry’s clerks have attended the technological process of conducting a car’s technical testing. They have even held a meeting with the employees of the testing station, where they discussed the corruption cases within the technical testing stations. According to Deputy Minister Pavel Untura, the station’s staff claims that such cases of “requesting supplementary amounts of money except legal fees has not taken place.”

“The testing station’s entire staff were warned about not allowing such actions that could misrepresent the image of the station’s employees, as well as the one of the ministry as a competent authority in this field,” Untura declares.

The Department of Fraud Investigation also hasn’t discovered any violations at the testing station on 14 Calea Iesilor. The head of the Department, Tudor Nicorici, said that a certain number of operative investigative measures have been taken in order to discover certain corruption acts. As a result – there were no corrupt acts.

According to experts from the Centre for Corruption Analysis and Prevention, if a person faces a problem, like Constantin T. or Anatol C., it is good to address the legal authorities and not fulfil the ‘requests’ of the centre’s workers. The request of a worker to receive a supplementary remuneration, under the condition that only in this case he will do his work, as well as his actions of deliberately putting the demander in the situation to offer supplementary remuneration are punished according to the penal code. The execution of work obligations should not be followed by the reception of supplementary remuneration. Such situations denote elements of the crime stipulated in art. 256 of the Criminal Procedure Code “receipt of illicit remuneration for executing activities related to serving the public.”

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