The special parliamentary commission called on the Prosecutor General and the National Anti-Corruption Center to investigate the illegal actions and omissions of officials and other persons in the process of concession of Chisinau airport.
This was stated at a press conference on Monday by Igor Munteanu, chairman of the parliamentary commission of inquiry to analyze the organization and conduct of privatization and transfer of state property to concessions in 2013-2019. He noted that in its request, the commission asked the Prosecutor General’s Office and the National Anti-Corruption Center to investigate all stages of the concession of the capital airport, to check possible violations of the law by transaction participants, the perpetrators to be held accountable, and also to prevent a possible transfer of the airport concession from Avia Invest to another company, so that the state does not remain without property and with big debts. The commission requests that it be informed of the progress of the investigation and the measures taken. Igor Munteanu explained that during the analysis of privatization and transfer of state property to concession in 2013-2019, the parliamentary commission, with the help of the Public Property Agency and a number of witnesses, revealed a number of violations that should be considered by the competent authorities. Igor Munteanu noted that, in the opinion of the commission, the actions of persons involved in the transaction of handing over a capital airport to a concession should be examined for abuse of power or official position, abuse of power, official negligence, misappropriation of state property, etc. He emphasized that the deputies' questions were raised by the procedure for granting a capital airport, which was previously in the list of objects not subject to privatization, to the concession agreement, if there was a clause in the concession agreement on the collection of a passenger fee of 9 euros for modernizing the airport to cover loan funds, although these money was returned earlier by the EBRD. According to Igor Munteanu, the question is how the members of the tender committee negotiated a concession agreement, which contains items that infringe on the interests of the state. “There are reasonable suspicions that the actions and omissions in certain situations of the members of the competitive commission are explained by the interests of the group of third parties who actually controlled the competition, were interested in the victory of one applicant and knew about the result of the competition long before its announcement,” said Igor Munteanu. He recalled that in 2015 the parliament had already created an investigative commission to investigate the airport concession, and it also appealed to law enforcement agencies. Then the National Anti-Corruption Center informed the parliament about the initiation of a criminal case on the concession of the airport without the relevant conclusions of the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Information and Security Service, which violated the law on denationalization. There were identified other irregularities in the concession process, were established dubious transactions by the concessionaire, transfers of large sums to the Sor group of companies - the Milsami football club, loans for Dufreemol and other Sor companies, which had nothing to do with the concession. In addition, back in 2015, the National Anti-Corruption Center recommended refusing to charge 9 euros from passengers. Igor Munteanu also noted that the selection of companies was led by the director of the airport, Petru Jardan, who later became the manager of the company, which was chosen as a concessionaire. In addition to the role and participation of Jardan in the process of the concession transaction, it is necessary to study the extent to which he was associated with Ilan Sor. According to Igor Munteanu, a group of several companies won the tender to select a concessionaire for the capital's airport, but then the contract was only given to Avia Invest with a small authorized capital.// 12.08.2019 — InfoMarket.
