The Supreme Court of Justice Overpaid to Its Staff?!.

In November 2006 the Chamber of Accounts adopted the Report on financial revision carried out at the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) for the period of 2004-2005 (published in Monitorul Oficial on January 12, 2007; read the full text in Russian and Romanian).

And I found an interesting paragraph there relating to the remuneration of the SCJ's personnel labour:

"During the verified period the remuneration of labour of the Supreme Court of Justice's personnel was regulated by the Parliament's Decision # 453-XIII of May 16, 1995 "On the Remuneration of Labour of Judges, Employees of Courts and Prosecutors' Offices". In spite of the fact that the SCJ established the categories of labour remuneration according to the Annex 1 to the aforementioned Decision of Parliament, the rises in wages and bonuses were set in accordance with the Government's Decision # 139 of February 09, 1998 "On remuneration of labour of public employees and persons that carry out technical maintenance supporting the functioning of public authorities, on the basis of the Uniform Tariff Scale", the latter ones being than the ones stipulated in the aforementioned Decision of the Parliament # 453-XIII.

Taking into consideration that according to para. 15 of the Government's Decision its provisions do not apply to public authorities for which the categories and conditions of labour remuneration are stipulated in special decisions, the Supreme Court of Justice ran up unjustified expenses on labour remuneration in 2004-2005 to the sum of 369.1 thousand lei and exceeded the expenses stipulated in the calculation of expenditures for the year 2005 for bonuses payments in the sum of 209.6 thousand lei and the rises in wages - for 26.8 thousand lei..."

So, according to the Chamber of Account's data the Supreme Court of Justice overpaid to its staff more than half a million lei during 2004-2005. Quite interesting, isn't it?...

The System of Apostille Issuance Introduced in Moldova

From Today, March 16, the Ministry of Justice finally starts to issue apostilles (you can read more news on this in Romanian and also to appoint the date for submitting documents to be affixed with apostille on the Ministry's official site). Last year the Moldovan Parliament adopted the Law on Joining the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (adopted in Hague). In February this year the Government adopted the Regulation on the Order of Apostille Issuance that stated that apostille should be issued and recognized from March 16 (the date when the Convention comes into force for Moldova).

And that is a very good news I think. A couple of years ago I had to legalize a proxy issued by a Moldovan company to its representative in Turkey. And here's the row of actions that I had to undertake:

1. Certification of the proxy by a notary.
2. Translation of the proxy.
3. Certification by the notary of translator's signature.
4. Certification of the notary's seal and signature by the Ministry of Justice.
5. Certification of the seal the Ministry of Justice by the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
6. And finally - certification of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' seal and legalization of proxy at the Consulate of Turkey.

SIX (!!!!!) steps in order to send a very simple document to another country. Thankfully we won't need to do it again...