The Chisinau water tariff remains the lowest in the country and European capitals, failing to cover the operational needs and the liabilities that have built up over the years through loans taken out in 2015 – the Chisinau Mayor's Office
This is the reaction of the capital's authorities to ANRE's report on the results of the audit of the Apă-Canal Chișinău company for 2020-2022, according to which inefficient management of contracts with EBRD and EIB was revealed. The Mayor's Office said that the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) is "an institution that employs people based on political criteria to fulfill the government's whims regarding tariffs and to discredit other organizations that are not run by public institutions." The municipal administration points out that Apă-Canal Chisinau and the Chisinau Mayor's Office have medium- and long-term management plans, so that citizens can benefit from quality services. It also emphasized that ANRE employees, who receive more than 1 million lei per year in salaries from Moldovan citizens, have neither the professional skills nor the authority to carry out a financial and economic analysis of the enterprise and make a decision on this matter. As InfoMarket reported earlier, according to ANRE's report on the results of the control of Apă-Canal Chișinău's licensing activity for 2020-2022, within the framework of contracts with the EIB and EBRD, the enterprise allowed inefficient expenses worth 3 million 922.7 thousand euros (79 million lei) due to the inability to comply with contractual terms and clauses, as well as delays in the implementation of investment projects and failure to repay loans in due time. The initially planned investment absorption period of 2015-2020 was extended until 2023. As of January 1, 2023, unfinished investments (in process) amounted to 755.1 million lei, which is 3.7 times more than the investments made in 2020-2022. Also, ANRE experts concluded that Apă-Canal Chișinău is exposed to a serious risk of insolvency on maturing bonds. As of December 31, 2022, it had a balance of 13.1 million lei and 692.6 million lei in maturing bonds. Another finding of the report was that after negligence in the planning process, modification of investment plans and subsequent inclusion in the Investment Report, Apă-Canal Chișinău missed the opportunity to recover from regulated tariffs an investment of 47 million lei. In addition, the operator failed to fulfill the obligation to annually submit the necessary documents to update tariffs and missed the inclusion of about 13 million lei in the basic expenses assumed in the calculation of the tariff for water and sewerage utilities. It is also noted that the company allowed inefficient expenses of 3.4 million lei in 2020-2022 in the procurement of material goods. The full report was planned to be sent to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Chisinau Municipal Council. // 10.07.2023 - InfoMarket.
