The Audit Report of the Court of Accounts in the field of natural gas will be heard at the plenary session of Parliament.
The legislative body will prepare a separate decision, which will determine the actions and tasks for state institutions to improve the situation in the field of natural gas. This was said by MP Radu Marian following the results of hearings organized by the parliamentary commission for economy, budget and finance together with the commission for control of public finances on the situation of Moldovagaz, its expenses and investments in recent years. Radu Marian considers the conclusions of the auditors very serious. They have revealed irrelevant and doubtful investments and expenditures of Moldovagaz, ascertained the risks of unreliability of debts, attributed by Gazprom to left-bank consumers; identified losses in the network in 2011-2021 in the amount of 2 billion lei. It is also noted that with the smallest participation in the authorized capital of Moldovagaz (13.44%), the Property Management Committee of the Transnistrian region is fully involved in the management of the enterprise. "Unjustified investments of Moldovagaz SA and not accepted by ANRE for tariff purposes amounted to 815 million lei. When ANRE does not accept the investments into the tariff, this means that their necessity for the consumers is not clear and the money turn into losses for the company, which jeopardizes the company's ability to function normally," said Radu Marian. At the same time, Moldovagaz has spent 445.6 million lei (VAT excluded) to build an office downtown Chisinau though the initial price was 230 million lei including VAT. Most of the documents and invoices related to the construction of the building disappeared (missing or destroyed) and the audit team could not get hold of important documents. A new administrative building was built in Ungheni - investments amounted to 20.7 million lei, but it has not yet been commissioned and is not used. Another 12.6 million lei was spent on road and gas infrastructure. The Court of Accounts auditors believe that these investments are not justified and the finances are used inefficiently. Also, due to the lack of arguments on expediency, ANRE did not include in the tariff the expenses for software development in the amount of 140 million lei. Significant violations were found in the area of procurement - they were conducted through intermediaries, at inflated prices, with the payment of surcharges of 153.3 million lei above the customs value of goods. Also, advances of 50% of the value of procurement contracts were provided. It is noted that the internal procurement procedures do not comply with the law, the company allows a differentiated approach to procurement. The company unreasonably overcharged at least 15.9 million lei for the construction or reconstruction of natural gas distribution infrastructure. The audit found irregularities in the payment of salaries to Moldovagaz employees. Remuneration of Moldovagas managers (18 members of the supervisory board, administration and censors) accounts for 23% of the company's total payroll. At the same time, base salary accounts for 48% (1.8 billion lei) of the total expenses for labor remuneration, the remaining 52% (1.97 billion lei) are bonuses and allowances paid to employees locally. Employees in Moldovagaz and related enterprises are hired without taking into account norms of workload per employee. In addition, company management advisors with undefined functions were hired. ANRE did not accept the expenses of 246.2 million lei for salaries, as these payments were not justified. It is worth mentioning that Moldovagaz indirectly admitted irregularities when the expenses of 1 billion lei were not deducted by the State Tax Service. // 25.01.2023 - InfoMarket.
