Premier seeks investigation into management of irrigation stations

12.09.2018 06:58
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2 minute(s)

The defective management of Moldova’s Water Agency and the deplorable situation in the public irrigation sector were harshly criticized by Prime Minister Pavel Filip. In a working meeting called in the evening of September 11, the Premier instructed to prepare an application to the Prosecutor General’s Office for this to take legal action and elucidate the circumstance and to punish those who are to blame for the disastrous situation in the public irrigation sector, IPN reports.

According to the Government’s press service, a video about the disastrous situation at the Cărpineni Technical Irrigation Station was shown in the meeting. This has been nonfunctional since 2014. However, it employs 11 persons and the salary arrears exceed 154,000 lei. The other 11 Technological Irrigation Stations are in a similar situation. These have 521 employees and their annual salary fund is of over 18 million lei.

“I consider this is a crime and causing of damage to the state. This is lack of responsibility as we had a chief at Moldova’s Water Agency in the period. We had managers at these state-run enterprises and had ministers who managed this sector. I refer to the Ministry of the Environment, currently the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment. But I don’t know why nobody wanted to devote attention to these problems,” stated Pavel Filip.

The 11 enterprises managed by Moldova’s Water Agency in 2014-2017 sustained losses of 59 million lei as the water pumping tariffs didn’t cover the effective costs of the service. All the costs were covered with state budget funds.

“I consider those who were responsible for this area should be held accountable and these should answer for all these losses that were sustained by the state. We accumulate salary arrears, employ persons and pay penalties for a sector that does not exist,” stated Pavel Filip.

The Premier also requested to immediately reorganize Moldova’s Water Agency and optimize costs, noting the practice when everything is done at the expense of the state should be brought to an end.