VIDEO // Moldovan PM announces results of preliminary analysis "obscene salaries," main solutions proposed by government

Prime Minister Vasile Tofan today announced the results of the preliminary review regarding the situation of so‑called “obscene salaries” in certain institutions and the main solutions proposed by the government in this regard. They include conducting additional investigations into the highest salary packages, suspending bonuses and allowances during the investigations, periodic reporting by institutional leadership on employees’ remuneration and creating a public online catalogue, accessible to everyone, that will show salary levels by institution and by position.

According to the PM, the analysis covered around 40,000 employees, and over 85 per cent have net salaries below 20,000 lei, of whom 55.6 per cent earn under 10,000 lei net.

At the same time, almost 9 per cent receive net salaries between 20,000 and 30,000 lei, and 4.3 per cent - between 30,000 and 50,000 lei. Net salaries higher than 50,000 lei are received by 1.1 per cent of the total number of employees in public institutions, the prime minister said.

Independent regulatory agencies, which represent a small segment of 2.5 per cent of the total (1,005 employees), have salary levels more than twice as high as the rest of the public institutions and four and a half times higher than state‑owned enterprises. The overall average net salary across all these institutions is almost 12,000 lei.

The evaluated data also revealed that 439 of the almost 40,000 employees included in the analysis, or 1.1 per cent, have a net salary of more than 50,000 lei. Most of these cases are found in independent regulatory authorities, followed by self‑managed public institutions, project implementation units, state‑owned enterprises and joint‑stock companies.

Prime Minister Vasile Tofan emphasized that a high salary is not necessarily an abuse and that there are rare, complex professions where the state must compete with the private sector, and people must be paid fairly, in order to attract and retain them in a high‑performing public sector. At the same time, excesses will not be tolerated where such payments are not justified, Vasile Tofan stressed.

“I promised you I would communicate directly. A high salary is not necessarily an abuse. There are rare, complex professions where we must compete with the private sector – in IT, in cybersecurity, in aviation, in critical fields. There are people who must be paid fairly, in order to attract and keep them in a high‑performing public sector. At the same time, we cannot tolerate excesses where these payments are not justified. The state machinery is complicated. In order to be able to take measures, we need government decisions, changes to laws and decisions by the founding authorities,” the prime minister said.

He also presented the main measures that will be implemented immediately, so as to restore order in this area.

Thus, for the 100 highest salary packages, investigations will be carried out manually. During the investigation period, any top‑ups, bonuses or additional per diems will be suspended for salaries that are more than three times the average salary on the economy (> 52,200 Moldovan lei).

During the investigation period, for higher salaries, any material assistance will also be stopped, “which has also been a loophole allowing some officials to add unjustified awards and bonuses,” Tofan said.

“Another little door we have discovered is the distribution of profits at state‑owned companies and public institutions. We want to suspend this provision as well for the duration of the investigation. We want to bring more transparency to the spending of public money. That is why, we will create and publish a public online catalogue, accessible to everyone, which will show salary levels by institution and by position,” the prime minister explained.

The PM also said that, for state‑owned companies, as well as for public institutions, regular reporting would be introduced, in video format, where the leaders of these institutions will present an activity report, including a report on remuneration.

“Dear citizens, we understand how sensitive this issue is. This is only a first step towards bringing more order to the field of obscene salaries. We ask you as well to come forward with proposals and suggestions on how we could improve the package of measures. We will work on government decisions, on changes to laws, on decisions by the founding authorities, to clean up this area. We understand that we can build a fair state, a state in which citizens believe and trust those who govern them, only by starting to clean up our own house. This is what we will focus our attention on in the coming days and weeks,” Vasile Tofan concluded.

At the first meeting of the new government, held last week, Prime Minister Vasile Tofan ordered specific intervention measures regarding the situation emerged around the so‑called “obscene salaries”. The official requested that the measures be presented by July 31.