On the Point. Missing reports of state-owned enterprises: negligence or intent?
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Automatically translated summary. The full text is available in Romanian.
In March 2016 Moldova amended its law on state-owned enterprises, adding a chapter on information disclosure. Around 80 enterprises were due to publish their 2016 annual report by 30 May 2017. An analysis of the websites of the ten largest enterprises and their founding authorities shows that the law is still not being fully applied.
Before the amendment, no legal provision required state-owned enterprises to disclose information; those that did so acted voluntarily. The change aimed to treat them like joint-stock companies traded on the stock exchange. Annual reports must include a management report, a description of the enterprise’s development and performance, the main risks and annual financial statements, including the pay of governing, management and supervisory bodies.
The ten largest enterprises by sales revenue had combined sales of MDL 5.7 billion, over 4% of GDP. None of them fully complied with the new disclosure rules. Only 3 of the 10 published an annual activity report, and none of these was complete: the management report, the pay of governing bodies and the risks were omitted. At least two enterprises did not even publish raw financial reports (balance sheet, profit and loss statement). Low transparency remains a major problem and indirectly contributes to weak performance.
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