Moldova has terminated the public-private partnership contract with Gările Auto Moderne LLC for the concession of all bus stations.
The Public Property Agency reported this, noting that, thus, the country's terminals and bus stations will return to public management. It is stressed that the public-private partnership contract with Gările Auto Moderne for the modernization of the bus stations was terminated due to the failure to provide a guarantee of proper execution and failure to implement the planned investment plan. In May of this year, the contractor was notified about the need to remedy the situation within 90 days, which was not done. As a consequence, the government, through the monitoring commission, decided on August 25 to terminate the contract with Gările Auto Moderne. According to the contract, within 1 month, the private partner must hand over all the assets received in December 2018 from SE Gările și Stațiile Auto in good, functional and free from any encumbrances and obligations. The legislation in this area stipulates that in case of termination of the public-private partnership, the private partner is obliged to ensure the continuity of activities or services until the public partner takes them over. The monitoring commission also reviewed the action plan for the state to take over these assets at the meeting. The contract for the concession of the bus stations was concluded on December 17, 2018, with Gările Auto Moderne for a period of 25 years. According to the contract, the private partner was obliged to modernize 30 bus terminals and bus stations within a maximum of 3 years. Earlier it was planned that the private company Gările Auto Moderne would invest at least 200 million lei in the modernization of road and bus stations in Moldova and ensure their reconstruction according to European standards. Gările Auto Moderne was registered on November 12, 2018, and its founders were the construction company ExFactor-Grup and an individual Luca MUCO. They created Gările Auto Moderne specifically to participate in a project to modernize and improve the efficiency of the SE Gările și Stațiile Auto branches, which involved modernizing the infrastructure and activities of 30 terminals stations and bus stations in the country over 3 years. It referred to the repair of administrative buildings, platforms, construction/repair/reconstruction of infrastructure (sanitary groups on platforms, water supply, sewerage, platform lighting network, platform roof, and access roads for people with disabilities), modernization of information systems, increasing the efficiency of bus and bus stations by implementing modern management systems, etc. It was stipulated that the implementation of the project implied the transfer to the private partner of the rights to the services provided by SE Gările și Stațiile Auto and the property necessary to provide these services. The investor was to invest about 200 million lei in the project for 3 years in order to modernize 30 branches of the above-mentioned enterprise. The investments were expected to pay back within 25 years. The investor undertook the construction, financing, operation and maintenance of the modernized objects. At the same time, he had the right to charge a fee for the use of the facility to recoup his investment and to cover the costs of maintenance, as well as to make a profit. Under the contract, the private partner was to pay into the state budget 4 million 975 thousand lei per year with an annual increase of 5% of this amount. Thus, during the whole 25-year term of the project implementation, the private partner was to transfer to the state about 250 million lei for the use of the assets and provision of services. // 26.08.2022 - InfoMarket.
