The Party of Action and Soldiery’s group on the Chisinau Municipal Council proposed purchasing transport services from private companies. According to the PAS councilors, this would be a solution for overcoming the public transport crisis in Chisinau during the pandemic and is a swift, high-quality and transparent solution that does not imply useless spending of public funds, IPN reports.

In a news conference, PAS councilor Roman Cojuhari said this proposal is more efficient than the mayor’s proposal to buy directly 100 used units of transport. The procurement of transport services from private companies will enable to put the units of transept on routes in three-four weeks and there will be time for holding a tender contest in a transparent way. Or the quality of the provided services could not be checked as this service will be further provided by the Chisinau Urban Bus Company that does not have a director and an Administration Board. The PAS urges the mayor to give up purchasing buses directly and to support this initiative.

The deputy head of the PAS group on the CMC Alexandr Trubca said a solution must be found urgently as Chisinau in the current times of pandemic needs 600-700 units of transport. The mayor’s intention to purchase the used buses without a tender contest is not a solution. It is not clear who will identify the buses, who will negotiate the prices, who will pay and will examine the buses.

Mayor of Chisinau Ion Ceban on March 15 instructed his colleagues to make approaches to purchase 100 used buses by direct negotiations. He said the local councilors are to blame for the fact that the results of the tender contest were annulled after the National Dispute Resolution Agency ordered to review the bids. The contest was won by ISUZU and this was to deliver the 100 buses to Chisinau.