The Moldovan government approved an independent audit of Moldovagaz's debt to Gazprom and Factoring-Finance for gas supplied to the right bank of the Dniester.
According to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers adopted at a meeting on Wednesday, the Public Property Agency was authorized to purchase the services of such an audit, and the agency will create a working group to carry out the procedure for public procurement of the relevant audit services, in accordance with the Public Procurement Law. The acquisition costs of these audit services will be covered by the Government's Reserve Fund. It was agreed that the Public Property Agency may, if necessary, involve in the working group, as consultants, specialists and experts in the field of procurement. The approved resolution will enter into force after its publication in Monitorul Oficial. General Director of the Public Property Agency Eugeniu Cozonac recalled that Moldovagaz has a historical debt to Gazprom for gas supplied to consumers of the Republic of Moldova. In this regard, the government, as the owner of 35.33% of Moldovagaz shares, in order to resolve the existing problems in the field of natural gas and the need to provide all citizens of Moldova with natural gas at the national level, as well as taking into account the increased public interest in the accumulated debt to “Gazprom” and taking into account the direct impact of debt on society (through unjustified increase in tariffs) considers it necessary to conduct an independent debt audit to verify that the debt to external suppliers corresponds to the real situation in order to avoid taking overstated financial responsibility by citizens. Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development of Moldova Andrei Spinu noted that an international competition for the selection of a company for an independent audit of the historical debt of Moldovagaz to Gazprom and Factoring Finance is planned to be announced in December 2021, and in it only well-known international companies with a good reputation will be able to participate. It is planned that the competition itself will last 1-2 months. “We expect that the audit of Moldovagaz’s debt to Gazprom and Factoring Finance will begin in February in order to complete the audit by May 1, 2022. This deadline is also stipulated in the protocol that we signed with Gazprom on October, 29-th ”said Andrei Spinu. He noted that until the completion of this audit, the Moldovan side will not discuss the issue of repayment of the historical debt. At the same time, the Deputy Prime Minister called it important that the protocol signed with Gazprom does not mention any figures of the historical debt. “We consider it necessary to first conduct an independent audit of the historical debt of Moldovagaz for gas supplied to consumers on the right bank of the Dniester. Earlier, Gazprom talked about the historical debt for gas from the right bank of the Dniester in the amount of $ 700-720 million. The government does not talk about any amounts. I will not give any numbers in order to avoid speculation that the government has recognized a certain amount of debt. We agreed to conduct an audit to find out how this historic debt was formed and what its real amount is. Then "Moldovagaz" and "Gazprom" will have to find a compromise for debt restructuring within 5 years, ”said the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development of Moldova. Herewith, he noted that Chisinau does not discuss with Moscow the repayment of debt for gas consumed in Transnistria.// 29.12.2021 — InfoMarket
