Moldova state enterprises face closure and asset audit
Around half of the 515 state-owned enterprises registered in Moldova conduct no economic activity and should be liquidated, a parliamentary inquiry commission concluded following audit hearings on 31 July. Before any closures proceed, however, the authorities must complete a full inventory of state property amid concerns that some assets may be used by third parties without generating any benefit for the state.
MP Igor Talmazan, a member of the commission, said the problem included assets transferred during the 1990s whose current status was unknown even to the institutions that founded the enterprises. Some properties may still exist physically despite having disappeared from official oversight.
“A sanatorium cannot be transferred and then simply disappear. There have been cases in which properties were transferred without being properly registered. It is possible that these buildings still exist and may be used by third parties, but first they must be identified,” Talmazan claimed.
He added that ministries and public bodies still employed officials with sufficient “institutional memory” to help establish what happened to former state assets. According to the MP, the authorities could organise on-site inspections using their own staff without creating significant operational difficulties.
Ministries urged to recover unused public property
Commission Secretary and MP Vasile Grădinaru called on officials to concentrate on resolving the problem rather than assigning blame for previous failures. He said unused state property could help businesses and public institutions currently facing shortages of land and premises.
“My request to each of us is to look in the mirror and identify the assets that can be put to use. Businesses today are experiencing an acute shortage of land, public institutions lack premises, and we pay rent while leaving our own properties unused,” Grădinaru said.
He acknowledged that the inventory had not been completed earlier for various reasons but argued that every ministry must now finish the process. The findings suggest that weak record-keeping and repeated institutional reorganisations have allowed potentially valuable state property to remain outside effective public control.
According to the Public Services Agency Moldova, 515 state-owned enterprises are registered in the country. Under a 2017 government decision, they were supposed to be transferred from individual ministries to the Public Property Agency (APP).
The transfer process was marked by numerous irregularities. Some enterprises were handed over without formal transfer documents, while others remained on ministerial balance sheets despite the government’s decision.
Repeated reorganisations of ministries further complicated the situation. In many cases, the institutions that now formally oversee particular enterprises have little direct connection to the bodies that originally established them.
The Public Property Agency currently lists 168 Moldova state enterprises in its register, including a number that are inactive. However, the agency is not formally recognised as the founder of all these legal entities because transfers from the ministries were never fully completed.
MOLDATSA controversy prompts wider investigation
The parliamentary inquiry commission, chaired by MP Dinu Plîngău, was established on 2 July. Its creation followed public controversy surrounding MOLDATSA, including reports of high salaries, disputed appointments involving alleged nepotism and possible management irregularities at state-owned enterprises.
The investigation has since exposed a much broader governance problem extending beyond a single company. The incomplete transfer of enterprises, missing documentation and uncertainty over the use of public property indicate that successive governments failed to maintain an accurate picture of assets belonging to the state.
The commission’s work also comes as the government led by Prime Minister Vasile Tofan, approved by parliament on 21 July, continues to promote deregulation and a reduced role for the state in the economy. Tofan has previously argued that the government should not attempt to identify profitable sectors but should instead create simpler rules for private businesses.
That strategy now sits alongside the need to recover and properly manage state assets accumulated over decades. Reducing government involvement may remain the cabinet’s stated objective, but the inquiry suggests that basic accountability, ownership records and control over public property must first be restored.
Whether inactive Moldova state enterprises are liquidated or their assets returned to productive use will depend on the quality of the inventory. Without a complete register, closing legal entities could leave valuable property in the hands of unidentified users while the state continues paying rent and businesses struggle to find suitable premises.
