The flags purchased last year to be hoisted in the capital city on the Republic’s Day are not fit for use anymore. The local authorities will have to buy new flags by the City Day, Nina Stratulat, head of the Division of Interethnic Relations and Humanitarian Aid, said at Monday’s meeting of the City Hall. Chisinau Mayor General Dorin Chirtoaca said he will order additional investigations into this case. He wants to know why the flags that cost 600 000 lei have deteriorated so badly during a year. Chirtoaca threatens with sanctions if irregularities or abuses of power are discovered. The law enforcement bodies will be notified if there are identified economic offences. Last year, a number of municipal councilmen intended to inform the municipal Prosecutor’s Office and ask the then interim mayor Vasile Ursu to report how the 600 000 lei had been spent. The municipal councillor on behalf of the Moldova Noastra Alliance faction Oleg Cernei said then that the flags were of a poor quality, but the price paid for them was exaggerated. According to the procedure, the mayor cannot make expensive purchases without the accord of the councillors. He had to submit a draft decision accompanied by the estimative expenditure to the Council for examination. A tender contest was to be announced earlier to select the economic entity that was to make the flags, the cited source says. As the coat of arms was imprinted only on one side, the flags were joined by two and fixed on wooden posts so as the wind could not take them down.