The parliamentary commission of inquiry determined that the termination of the contract for the sale and purchase of state-owned shares in the tobacco company SA “Tutun – CTC” at the commercial contest of January 11, 2019, on the initiative of the state, is not necessary, but suggested that the law enforcement agencies should be informed about the public servants who represented the state in the administration of SA “Tutun – CTC and by their actions or inaction allowed poor results that led to the depreciation of the company’s value. The interaction with distributors that obtained evident advantages from the company should be assessed, the commission’s chairman Igor Munteanu said in Parliament when presenting a report, IPN reports.

The report says the privatization decision was an optimal solution for the Government of Moldova. Keeping the state-owned shareholding in SA “Tutun-CTC” SA would have led to a halt in production and later to insolvency. A series of companies (distributors) were involved in the manipulative scheme and the sale took place only documentarily, while the financial results for 2017-2018 were distorted before the contest.

For their part, the distributors, through these manipulations, benefitted from a series of advantages from SA “Tutun-CTC” in the form of deferred payments and lending of goods. On December 31, 2018, SA “Tutun-CTC”, following sales of 88 million lei, had commercial debts and unpaid goods to the value of 68 million lei.

The commission of inquiry will suggest that the Government should intervene and propose amendments to the legislation so as to change the method of setting the initial selling price of publicly owned shares that are put up for sale and to establish stricter control and an efficient reporting system for the representatives of the state.