Gazprom will soon receive an audit report on Moldovagaz's historical debt along with a draft agreement on its settlement.
Energy Minister Victor Parlicov said this in an interview with Europa Liberă radio. He did not mention the exact figures from the report he had read, referring to the confidentiality clauses agreed upon by the parties. However, the Energy Minister said that "a significant part of the debt was accumulated because, in fact, Moldovagaz took a loan from Gazprom to cover some unjustified expenses that were not approved by ANRE". Victor Parlicov also said that there are also debts not confirmed by documents. "Independent auditors have assessed the amount that Moldovagaz management spent "imprudently", without being included, without being accepted in the tariff by the regulator," the Energy Minister said. He specified that after being sent to Gazprom, the audit report will be published so that the public could familiarize with it. The Energy Minister believes that the funds spent on the audit report by two companies - Wikborg Rein Advokatfirma AS (Norway) and Forensic Risk Alliance & Co (UK) - are fully justified. He said that from the initial amount of 800 thousand euros initially agreed by the Public Property Agency with the two companies, the contract was modified along the way and the final amount reached 1.15 million euros. The Energy Minister admitted that relations with Gazprom are now "on pause", and he himself has not had any discussions with the management of the Russian concern since his appointment as Energy Minister. "First of all, we need a 'topic for discussion' and it will appear after Gazprom receives the results of the historical debt audit and a draft agreement on its settlement," Victor Parlicov said. In his opinion, relations with Gazprom will be clarified by September-October this year. As InfoMarket reported earlier, an independent audit of Moldovagaz's historical debt to Gazprom and Factoring-Finance for the natural gas supplied to consumers on the right bank of Nistru/Dniester river was conducted by Norway's Wikborg Rein Advokatfirma AS and Britain's Forensic Risk Alliance & Co. The external auditors had not only to establish the exact amount of Moldovagaz's historical debt to Gazprom and Factoring Finance for the natural gas supplied to consumers on the right bank of the Nistru/Dniester River, but also to find out the factors behind the formation of this debt. Earlier, Gazprom's official representative Sergey Kupriyanov said that Moldovagaz's historical debt to the Gazprom group amounts to $433 million, and taking into account overdue payments, the total amount of debt reaches $709 million. The Moldovan Court of Accounts, following an audit, claims that Moldovagaz's debt to Gazprom amounts to $590.8 million. The largest shareholders of Moldovagaz are Gazprom (50% of shares), the Moldovan government (35.33%) and the Transnistrian administration (13.44%), which transferred its shares to the trust management of the Russian gas holding company. //27.07.2023 - InfoMarket.
