The new members1 of the Commission were appointed in 2022 and on April 22, 2022 the Commission held its first working meeting in since 2020.
The Certification Commission runs under the authority of the Public Services Agency since 2020, when it was transferred from the Ministry of Justice. The previous mandate of the Certification Commission members expired in 2020 and, since 26 May 2020, no decisions regarding public benefit statuses have been issued. As a result, many CSOs could not renew their statuses and lost their benefits. Only 18 CSOs still had this status by the time the Certification Commission resumed its activity in 2022. It is expected that other CSOs will follow to complete the list that exceeded 100 CSOs back in 2020.
The Certification Commission consists of 9 members of which 3 are appointed by the Parliament, 3 - by the President of the Republic of Moldova and 3 - by the Government. The activity of the Commission is based on the Law on non-commercial organisations 86/2020 and its Regulation that was amended in November 2021.
The Certification Commission examines the application for the award of the public benefit status within one month from the date of submission of the complete dossier. If the submitted documents are incomplete, the secretariat of the Certification Commission shall allow the applicant a maximum of 10 days to fill the gaps. CSOs can receive the public benefit status for a period of five years via a clear procedure provided in the law.
The CSOs with public benefit status benefit from the financial and material support of the central and local public authorities through:
- Fiscal facilities,
- Free of charge or preferential use of public property,
- Non-reimbursable financing,
- Contracting works and services, and
- Special purpose financing, including social order.