General Commissar of city police Eugen Axentiev failed to appear before the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) at its meeting on December 24 to account for the expenses of police in 2007, as earlier requested by the councillors. Iacob Gumenita, Axentiev’s deputy, informed the Council that the general commissar did not come to the Council’s meeting because he was called to the Government, but he is ready to present the report at the next meeting. The CMC chairman Mihai Ghimpu said that the report must be presented to the councillors in written form so that they are able to thoroughly analyse the expenditures. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that the municipal police chief does not have clear answers to councillors’ questions, stressing that such an attitude can be regarded as insubordination to the Council. In the absence of Axentiev, the councillors proceeded to quiz his deputy. The leader of the Liberal-Democratic faction, Alexandru Tanase, inquired who ordered that the Christmas tree be moved from the Square to the back of the Triumphal Arch, who provided the guard and if there was an official order for moving it. Iacob Gumenita said that he received and fulfilled no order to move the tree and they are now investigating the case to establish who shifted the tree. Asked by the CMC chairman Mihai Ghimpu why the horses of the municipal police were at the elections in Buteni village, the municipal police head said that he did not give such instructions and he does not know whether the animals were taken to Buteni. At the same time, Gumenita claimed that the Christmas tree was acquired and transported by the municipality with illegalities. The vice commissar said that the investigations conducted by the police revealed that the fir tree was cut from the yard of a female resident of Vaduleni village. The forester promised the woman that she will be paid 3,500 lei or will get wood in lieu of the tree. But she has not yet received the money, Gumenita said, stressing that the expenditure estimate for buying and transporting the tree indicates a sum of 6,600 lei. He also said that the tree was transported to the Great National Assembly Square without the traffic police’s consent. Councillor of the Humanist-Democratic faction Serghei Cires warned the councillors that the issue of fir tree is politicised and reminded that they were elected by people that celebrate Christmas according to the old calendar too. Svetlana Popa, councillor of the Communist faction, said that the security of the people and children is more important than the fir tree or horses of the municipal police. The financial report of the General Police Commissariat of Chisinau was included on Monday’s CMC agenda at the proposal of Oleg Cernei, a councillor representing the Moldova Noastra Alliance faction. In his interpellation, Cernei expressed his indignation at the fact that the deputy commissar Iacob Gumenita did not fulfil the order of the Mayor General Dorin Chirtoaca to allow transferring the Christmas tree back to the Great National Assembly Square. By acting like that, the municipal police manifest civil and professional insubordination to the mayor, said Oleg Cernei. The councillor said that 75 million lei is allocated from the Chisinau budget for the municipal police and such an attitude is disrespect towards the CMC. “You said that the hungry policemen are a danger to the society, but I can say that a commissar that does not observe the law is even more dangerous,” the AMN councillor told Eugen Axentiev. The relations between the local public authorities and the municipal police are tense because the law enforcement bodies in Chisinau have a double subordination. The last confrontation between Dorin Chirtoaca and Iacob Gumenita occurred on December 10, when the deputy police commissar refused to fulfil the mayor’s order and allow the Christmas tree to be reinstalled. The Chisinau authorities say that the fir tree placed on December 9 in the Great National Assembly Square was taken down by the police at midnight and moved to the back of the Triumphal Arch.