Bill to be proposed to break up Metalferos monopoly

03.08.2019 11:42
3247
2 minute(s)

The Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure is preparing a draft law that seeks to break up the monopoly set up by Metalferos. According to Prime Minister Maia Sandu, this is needed because “the fraudulent schemes employed have been too many and too sophisticated.”

Speaking in a talk show on TV8, Maia Sandu said that it was discussed how the state-owned Metalferos became a monopoly: “The pretext used by the previous governments was that good metal was being stolen and sold as scrap metal.” In her opinion, the fastest solution is to break up the monopoly of this company.

Maia Sandu said that internal investigations are being conducted in state-owned enterprises. Some executives or employees leave before being fired, others stay and continue to steal public property. In her view, it is important to stop the embezzlement, and this is one of the reasons why privatizations have been stopped.

“Everyone understands that the Prime Minister is not coming to arrest the former interior minister or, the former head of the Public Property Agency, or the former director of Moldtelecom, or of Metalferos. What the Government can do in the beginning is to remove these people from the system. To make sure that the investigations continue into the illegalities, the embezzlement that these people committed. The next step is for the prosecutors and the courts to decide who is going to jail and who’s not,” said Maia Sandu.

The prime minister also says that in order to appoint honest and incorruptible people at state-owned enterprises, it is also necessary to clean the boards of directors of these companies. And only then do contests for the position of director have to be launched. However, if the same composition of the boards remains, there is a risk that that dishonest managers will be appointed again.

Last week, former MP Iurie Bolboceanu said he had been promoting a draft law in 2011 to break up the monopoly of Metalferos, but it wasn’t received well by the leadership of the Democratic Party, who is believed to have interests the company.