Administrator of Termocom SA could be discharged when City Hall takes over the company

Even if the water supplier Termocom SA is not yet property of the municipality of Chisinau, the local councillors are considering the dismissal of the company’s administrator Dionisie Antocel. According to the Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca, the economic court by October-November could decide to end the bankruptcy process by reorganizing the company and to allow the City Hall to take over the company from the Creditors’ Council. According to the mayor, by this date the local authorities could declare the post of director vacant. Chirtoaca accuses Antocel of refusing categorically to present the results of the financial audit examination carried out at the company recently. Antocel said that these checks concern only the company. The Chisinau City Hall said that Termocom SA will only gain when it is taken over by the municipal administration. Anyway the general public considers that the City Hall and not the Government is responsible for the heat supply in the city. Moreover, the local authorities have institutional capacities to administer the company successfully. To support the mayor’s statements, the councillor on behalf of the Moldova Noastra Alliance faction Oleg Cernei said that a person that has managed the company for over six years and has increased its debts from 700 mln to 1.8 bln lei cannot hold this post anymore. Mihai Arusoi, commercial director of Termocom SA, told Info-Prim Neo that while the company has been administered by the Creditors’ Council, the company’s management fulfilled its obligations and the councillors that seek Antocel’s dismissal should be grateful to him for the fact that Termocom’s earlier debts of millions of lei have been reduced during the past six years. He also said that the company’s image has changed during the past two-three years because the heat supplies are now more reliable. At the same time, the administrators of the housing sector are not sued anymore, the accounts are not sequestrated and the company works directly with the bad payers. Arusoi says that for the company to work efficiently there should be approved real charges that would cover all the expenses. If there is no financial and moral support, the administration of Termocom will leave by himself, without waiting to be dismissed, the cited source said. The commercial director added that the local administration should take into account the fact that the economic court could decide to gradually reorganize Termocom, but this time by liquidation. In such a case, the company will have to be sold during five years, including by parts. The whole centralized heating system of the city could be in danger then.