Moldova has a good chance to "rid" Moldovagaz of its debt to Gazprom amounting to over $700 million - Sergiu Tofilat.
This opinion was expressed by the member of the Supervisory Board of Moldovagaz during a press conference on Monday, at which he presented his priorities for this position. He said that, first of all, it is planned to start cooperation with the investigative bodies in order to investigate violations, illegal and fraudulent actions that caused damage to Moldovagaz and led to the accumulation of its debts to Gazprom. Sergiu Tofilat said that there are a number of known cases that were detected earlier by the law-enforcement bodies and the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE), but the investigation did not move forward and was blocked for various reasons, which are also to be clarified, as well as to punish the perpetrators and recover from them the damages caused to Moldovagaz. According to him, the first case concerns the Cristal Flor company, to which, as a result of illegal court decisions, Moldovagaz was forced to supply gas as a debt. Cristal-Flor was controlled by Veaceslav Platon, it failed to pay for the gas supplied by Moldovagaz in 2009, which resulted in a debt of 57 million lei, equivalent to $5 million at the exchange rate at that time. At the same time, Sergiu Tofilat said that the National Anti-Corruption Center has been aware of this case since 2009, and it is important to bring to justice the guilty persons and return the debts. Another case concerns the Belvilcom company, which received unaccounted gas worth 34 million lei from Moldovagaz, using it to produce electricity or to resell it to customers, and then this gas was converted into losses in the networks, which were included in the tariffs for end consumers. According to Sergiu Tofilat, the case materials are in the Prosecutor's Office, but the investigation is not progressing. The member of the Supervisory Board of Moldovatransgaz also recalled the case of Moldovatransgaz, which, as it was found earlier, bought meters, pipes and other necessary materials not from producers, but through intermediaries, mostly registered in offshore companies in Cyprus, and the prices were inflated 4-5 times. The damage amounted to 243 million lei, ANRE stated. Sergiu Tofilat also cited other cases of Moldovagaz property insurance, for which 90.5 million lei was allegedly paid, while no insurance company in Moldova could cover the assumed risks of property insurance for 3 billion lei without a reinsurance contract, but this was not done, and the reports were falsified. He also mentioned the construction of Moldovagaz office on Puskin Street in Chisinau worth 500 million lei at an inflated cost estimate, the dubious purchase of legal services by the company, other cases of inefficient management of the company and various schemes. The member of the Supervisory Board of Moldovagaz called for identifying and punishing the prosecutors, employees of the Prosecutor's Office or politicians who decided to close the cases of embezzlement and fraud by Moldovagaz or did not initiate them at all. He believes that the investigation will be much more advanced if a mechanism of witness protection is established and the latter will be able to provide more detailed information about the participants of the schemes, testify to shed light on the violations and get close to the "big fish", the organizers of the schemes. Sergiu Tofilat believes that for this purpose it is necessary to find honest prosecutors, who will help to expose the fraudsters. He also promised to name those who will try to block the investigations. The member of the Supervisory Board of Moldovagaz"said that in order to intensify the investigation process, he plans to create a special discussion platform in Parliament, including on the issues of protecting Moldova's interests in settling the gas debt of the right bank of the Nistru/Dniester, on the problems of paying off part of the debt of the left bank of the Nistru/Dniester for gas at the expense of the consumers of the right bank of the Nistru/Dniester through the inclusion of these amounts in the tariff, etc. Sergiu Tofilat also spoke in favor of making an inventory and evaluation at current market value of all gas pipeline sections built earlier at the expense of the central and local budgets and citizens' money, but transferred to the balance of Moldovagaz for technical maintenance. It is planned to assess them as a single property complex. He noted that today about 15,000 kilometers of gas pipelines (2/3) do not belong to Moldovagaz. Sergiu Tofilat also mentioned the need to reduce the salaries and remuneration of the members of the company's Supervisory Board, noting that he does not know how much this salary is now and how it is formed. According to some sources, it amounts to 90-140 thousand lei "clean" and "dirty", respectively. "I will propose to introduce a decent and motivating salary, the amount of which will consist of three components: a fixed, minimum part, a variable part depending on the amount of work, as well as a bonus for achieving goals," said the member of the Supervisory Board of Moldovagaz. Energy Minister Victor Parlicov said earlier that an audit report on Moldovagaz's historical debt, along with a draft agreement on its settlement, had been sent to Gazprom. He did not name the exact figures from the report, which he familiarized himself with, referring to the confidentiality clauses agreed upon by the parties. However, the Energy Minister said that "a significant part of the debt has accumulated due to the fact that, 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. // 07.08.2023 - InfoMarket
