The National Bank of Moldova lost nothing and thus could not go to the prosecution bodies when it informed the Government about the illegalities committed in the banking system, the central bank’s acting governor Dorin Dragutanu said in the December 2 special sitting of Parliament. According to him, the state was the injured party and it should have reacted to the thefts committed at Banca de Economii (BEM), Banca Sociala and Unibank, especially because it had been furnished with relevant information starting with 2010, IPN reports.
Asked by MPs why he didn’t go to the prosecution bodies if he knew about the irregularities at the three banks, the acting governor explained that nothing was stolen from the National Bank and they didn’t have reasons to go there. “The Ministry of Finance and the Government in general have known about the stealing since 2010. The National Bank lost nothing. It is the state that should have reacted. The owner had to go to the prosecution bodies, and this had the relevant information,” he stated.
Dorin Dragutanu said the Ministry of Finance and the Government had been permanently informed about those illegalities in written form. “In 2010, Prime Minister Filat was informed that dubious new loans were released by BEM, in 2012 – about bad loans and the imposed penalties. In September 2012, the Ministry of Finance, headed by Veaceslav Negruta, was informed that the situation at BEM was critical. In October 2012, Premier Filat was informed about the remediation measures. In February 2013, the Government was recommended to increase the bank’s registered capital by 700 million lei. In January 2014, Premier Leanca was informed about unordinary share issues. In March 201, Prime Minister Chiril Gaburici was informed about the remediation measures and the necessity of liquidating the banks. In general, there were many discussions and measures should have been taken in January 2014. The state guarantee should have been issued then,” noted the acting government, adding that if this had been done, the current losses of over 14 billion lei would have been by about 6 billion lei smaller.
As to the remediation measures, Dorin Dragutanu said that these were intended for the sensible shareholders and professional managers of these banks. “If the leadership does not react, the shareholder is obliged to react. The shareholder bears the main responsibility for what is going on at the bank. I don’t think it is right to tell me that I should have stopped the members of a party who were stealing. The information was furnished continuously,” he stated.
According to the acting governor, the Republic of Moldova has experienced the most serious bank crisis ever witnessed and was close to a collapse. The debts accumulated by the three banks after receiving emergency loans under the Government’s guarantee now total 14.121 billion lei. Only about 1.5 billion lei can be recovered by selling the assets of Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala and Unibank.
