In the context of the statements made by Mr. Vasile Nastase, the Member of Parliament, during a television programme of a private TV channel broadcasted in the Republic of Moldova, the PSA makes the following comments.
The Public Services Agency welcomes and supports any innovative initiatives and ideas that can contribute beneficially and constructively to the process of training the future drivers and improving the procedure of assessing their skills to drive.
Without making any allusion to the competencies of Mr. Vasile Nastase as a MP and, respectively, legislator, we communicate to him, and on this occasion to the specialist who consults him, that the process of assessing the skills of the future drivers is strictly based on the provisions of the legislation of the Republic of Moldova in force, and directives of the international legislation in that field (Directive 2006/126/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of the European Union of 20 December 2006, Law no.131 of 7 June 2007 on Road Traffic Safety, Regulation on Driving Licence, Organization and Conduct of Driving Licence Examination and Conditions of Admission to the Road Traffic, approved by the Government Decision No.1452 of 24.12.2007 and the Instructions for conducting the driving tests and conditions for obtaining a driving licence, approved by the Order of the PI “Public Services Agency” No.240 of 14 December 2017), which strictly prescribe each procedure for qualification of drivers and obtaining a driving licence.
Thus, the special manoeuvres to be tested with a bearing on road safety for the test of skills and behavior can be found in the minimum requirements for driving tests provided in the Directive 2006/126/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of the European Union of 20 December 2006, namely:
- parking the vehicle and leaving a parking space (parallel, oblique or right-angle, forwards or in reverse, on the flat, uphill or downhill, etc.).
The technical and material conditions of the training ground and conditions for testing the driving skills and behavior, as well as the conditions and ratios of slopes for the execution of driving exercises uphill and downhill are stipulated in the Law no.131/2007 on Road Traffic Safety.
It should be mentioned that the indicated above rules on testing the drivers, as well as the uphill and downhill driving test is an internationally widespread practice, and are regulated by the Directive 126/2006/CE and used in Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Poland, Ukraine etc.
At the same time, in order to ensure a transparent and objective conduct of the exams, the practical and theoretical driving tests are video and audio monitored.
As for the vehicle used for the practical driving test and the possibility to use your own vehicle at the practical driving test, please consider the fact that the vehicles of the Public Services Agency used for the driving tests are provided with audio-video recording system and GPS system. These records are used both in the examination process and in the procedure for appealing the examination results, and on their basis the appeal commission establishes the correctness of the candidates' assessment and the conduct of the examiners during the driving tests. These records are also used to prevent fraudulent exams. If necessary, the PSA specialists could explain in detail the rules and instructions for conducting the exams and the methodology used to assess the results of the exams.
On this occasion, we urge the MPs and other persons with the right of legislative initiative to come up with proposals to amend the legislation in the field, to improve the process of training and assessment of future drivers, considering the importance of these procedures for the road safety and human life in traffic.
On a different note, we once again express our concern regarding the fact that the Public Services Agency has become the target of public attacks for certain political parties in the context of the election campaign.
We consider the information voiced by Mr. Vasile Nastase to be false and baseless. The promotion and dissemination of this information aims at using the Public Services Agency for electoral purposes.
The Public Services Agency calls on the media to avoid their involvement in disseminating false or unverified information, especially the information that serves certain political interests. The Public Services Agency expresses its readiness to provide mass media with any information of public interest, within the limits of the law.