Tiraspol, 15 November. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. The president has submitted to the Supreme Council a draft law «On prohibition for certain categories of citizens to open and have accounts (deposits) in foreign banks outside Pridnestrovie, to own and (or use) foreign financial instruments». The draft law is to be considered in the regime of legislative emergency within 20 working days.
The draft law has been developed in compliance with the course for integration with Russia chosen by the people. It is based on Russia's federal law of 7 May 2013.
The draft law suggested by the president aims to ban state officials, their spouses and minor children from keeping money in foreign banks. The ban also applies to the use of foreign financial instruments, such as securities, contracts, bonds and other financial documents. Thus, it is referred to any form of gaining profit through foreign financial institutions and foreign financial instruments.
The president believes that officials, who are obliged by the virtue of office to ensure state interests, must make decisions aimed at protecting the republic's economic sovereignty, enhancing its investment attractiveness and creating favourable conditions for the development of all financial institutions within the state. Fair is an approach whereby a state official establishes its material well-being on the economic basis of the state whose interests he serves.
«Making significant decisions and possessing leverage for pursuing state policy in a given area, a person of power bears not only professional but also personal responsibility to the state and the people," says the explanatory memorandum to the bill.
According to President Shevchuk, the prohibition will help to undermine the practice of lobbying «harmful state decisions», based on the material interest of officials possessing property and property rights abroad, particularly in offshore areas.
As we have informed, it is not the first time when the president has put forward this legislation. In July 2016, the Supreme Council rejected the president's bills making all MPs professional and banning them from having overseas accounts. The majority of Supreme Council members (36 of 43) rejected this reform. Back then, during a long discussion of the amendments submitted by Yevgeny Shevchuk, MPs got stuck in legal casuistry on the bill's «regime status» and only partially spoke about its essence, and even then, only about professionalising MPs' work. And the issue of prohibiting legislators from having overseas accounts was not even raised.
