The leasing out of areas owned by the municipality without holding public tender contests is illegal and does not ensure equality for all those who want to obtain the lease. As a result, a maximum price for leasing out realty cannot be obtained and damage is caused to the municipal budget. This is one of the conclusions of the National Anticorruption Center, which carried out a strategic analysis of the activity of the General Economy, Reforms and Patrimonial Relations Division of the Chisinau Municipal Council, IPN reports.

The analysis shows that the lack of a public register concerning the available areas generates elements of corruption. Though the Division keeps records of the public property, it manages only a part of the nonresidential areas of the Chisinau City Hall. Different areas are rented at derisory prices as if by public associations, creation unions and other organizations. The areas are later purchased by these.

The privatization of nonresidential areas without holding public tender contests is also illegal because the Law on Local Public Administration is violated. The privatized property is underestimated and the assessment prices are much lower than the market value. The prices are also lower compared with other assessments. The experts and members of the Privatization Commission are responsible for the erroneous assessment of property.

The National Anticorruption Center explained that such an analysis was needed because the press reports an increasing number of violations of public interests when selling public property. A report by the independent think tank “Expert-Grup” showed that owing to the fraudulent management of public property, the municipality of Chisinau annually loses hundreds of millions of lei. The experts established that the normative prices on the privatization of nonresidential areas are tens of times lower than the market prices.