Trade secrets and amendments to the law on privatization

A number of issues submitted for discussion at the plenary session was considered by deputies of the Committee on Economic Policy, Budget and Finance at the meeting. Thus, the Committee prepared a response to the request of the Prosecutor of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic on the interpretation of a part of the law on commercial secrets, and considered amendments and additions to the PMR Law of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic “On denationalization and privatization”.

Are the financial statements of an organization a trade secret without the organization itself establishing a trade secret regime in relation to it? Anatoly Guretsky, Prosecutor of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, applied to the Supreme Council for clarification of the norms of the law. The Committee considered it expedient, instead of interpretation, to prepare law-in-draft in order to introduce an appropriate amendment to the Law of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic “On Accounting and Financial Reporting”, which would eliminate the need for interpretation.

According to the norms of the current legislation, the content of accounting and internal reporting registers is a commercial secret, and in some cases - a state secret as explained at the meeting of the Committee. At the same time, all data in the accounting registers are transferred to the financial statements only in a generalized form. The deputies of the relevant Committee considered that a trade secret regime could not be established with respect to accounting (financial) statements. Similar rules are applied in Russian legislation.

The law-in-draft in the near future will be submitted for consideration in the first reading at the plenary session.

The law-in-draft “On Amendments and Additions to the Law of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic “On Denationalization and Privatization” is being prepared for adoption already in the second final reading. Several legislations regulating this area of law were submitted to the relevant Committee at once. However, following the results of the working meetings, the parliamentarians decided to take as a basis the legislative initiative of the Government of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, which will be supplemented in turn by some relevant points from the alternative draft laws rejected by the Committee. Thus, it is planned in particular that the legislative initiative will reduce the administrative and financial costs of the state in the field of privatization taking into account the changes and additions made.

The Government proposes to publish the results of privatization not in the newspaper "Pridnestrovie", but on the websites of state administrations or a state authority authorized by the Government. The preferential right of members of the labor collective, tenants or shareholders of the company to buy out an object or its share is stipulated.

The deputies of the Supreme Council will make the final decision on this issue in the course of one of the next plenary sessions.