Piotr Guțul, head of the Republican Public Association “Protecția Consumatorului” (“Consumer Protection”), which has worked or over 15 years, congratulates the citizens on the occasion of World Consumers Rights Day. The association’s leader regrets that the state does not respect the organic law on consumer protection that exists in the Republic of Moldova. The subject was raised in a news conference at IPN.
Piotr Guțul said that in 2009, when Mihai Ghimpu held the post of acting President of the Republic of Moldova, this annulled the criminal penalties for non-observance of the law on consumer protection. Their association made multiple approaches to the senior state administration, but didn’t receive any answer. In 2021, they approached the Ministry of Justice, but were told that the given subject is not within the institution’s remit.
The association even drafted a bill on consumer protection and submitted this to Parliament last year, but they got a response saying that they do not have the right to legislative initiative.
“Dear MPs, you are not people’s MPs, you are people’s enemies,” said Piotr Guțul.
He also said that the heat supplier Termoelectrica refuses to obey this law and to sign direct contracts with the consumers. Today the heat meters installed on the block’s branch measures the amount of heat consumed by the whole apartment buildings. But the supplier does not monitor the process inside and does not check if the heat energy is equitably distributed to all the apartments and if the regulated thermal comfort is ensured.
A woman who lives on Zelinski St in Chisinau, a member of the association, confirmed that in the building she lives, it is hot on some stories and is it very cold on other stories. Even if all the competent bodies were notified and even if checks were performed, the problem remained unsolved. The dwellers are cold in their homes even if they regularly pay the bills. When they get sick and need money for medicines, no one cares about them.
A woman pensioner said she has faced such a problem since 1986. Together with the neighbors, they wrote letters to different institutions, but all in vain. If they had had money, they would have installed an autonomous heating system instead of the centralized one. If the consumers had had direct contracts with the supplier, this would have taken care of the quality of the provided service. For the purpose, the law needs to be enforced, while those who violate the law on consumer protection should be punished.
The Public Association “Protecția Consumatorului” intends to file a lawsuit against high-ranking officials over non-observance of consumer rights.
