The chairman of the Parliament Committee for national security, defense and public order, Chiril Moţpan, paid a visit to Mărculești International Airport on Monday, November 4. According to the MP, the visit was triggered by allegation regarding serious abuses, which where published in the press. The alleged abuses involved illegal arms transactions, artificial debt creation, fake auctions and theft of tens of millions of lei.
"The Committee was notified of suspicions that illegalities and embezzlement took place over the years. Considering that that the Mărculești International Airport is a strategic object of national importance, the Committee immediately took note and reacted. Subsequently, we have accumulated more information that confirms in one way or another that potential illegal sales of aircraft and spare parts and fraudulent management of state property took place over the years" the chairman of the National Security Committee told IPN.
Chiril Moţpan said that the purpose of this unexpected visit was to document current operations at the airport. Moreover, the visit coincided with a visit of several members of the Airport Management Board, including representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, the Public Property Agency and others.
"We have all been informed about what is happening in this area and we are expecting additional information. We saw some things by ourselves. However, in order to make a decision, we need to substantially analyze all available information, including seemingly old information. Mărculești airport was previously managed by the Ministry of Defense, however, since 2004 it has been transformed into a free economic zone and since then many strange things have happened. According to some reports, allegedly, aircraft have disappeared, illegal weapons have been sold, while Airport crafts have been fraudulently managed", said Chiril Moţpan.
According to him, the Committee will thoroughly study all the information that has been received so far and the members will decide on further action. Either public hearings will be organized or a commission of inquiry will be set up regarding the situation at Mărculești International Airport, which will investigate how was it managed, how does the state benefit from the current situation and whether it is possible to keep the assets as public property.
Asked by IPN, the airport manager, Nicolae Clichici, said that the Mărculești International Airport is currently operational and that in April 2019 the airport certificate was extended, which allows the reception of crafts not only from inside the country, but also from abroad. "As you have seen during the visit, the Airport is operational and there are no potholes on the runway. An audit was conducted a week ago by the Civil Aviation Authority, which inspected the status of the runway, operating status of the machines and of the control tower, etc. The audit concluded that we are operational, we are ready to work and are ready to receive virtually any craft with a total mass of up to four hundred tons", said the administrator.
Asked whether the Airport has any issues, Nicolae Clichici said that due to the inefficient management of previous administrators, a rather complicated financial situation was created, namely arrears to the national public budget and arrears to former and current employees. According to him, due to these arrears, the activity of the Airport is practically stopped, because the bank accounts are suspended. "However, we hope for the best, because we have assets that can be put into operation - two working helicopters that you saw, another two more helicopters that can be rented out, which would allow us not just to survive, but also to flourish", Nicolae Clichici said.
