Answers over casino row to be provided by October 1

October 1, 2011 is the deadline by which the commission of inquiry into the casino case is to make its report public. It was set by the legislative body on July 21 by the votes of 36 Democrat and Liberal-Democrat lawmakers, Info-Prim Neo reports. The contradictory discussions on this subject lasted for almost an hour. The Liberal parliamentary group asked that the report be presented by the end of the spring-summer session, while the Liberal-Democratic group insisted that the commission should work by October 1. Head of Parliament Marian Lupu proposed that the commission should continue work until it prepares the report, but not later than October 1. The commission was set up by Parliament on April 15. It includes lawmakers of all the parliamentary groups. The initial June 15 delaine for rendering the report was extended by a month. The Liberals suggested that the commission should continue work by the end of the current session, i.e. until next week. “I’m convinced that a report can be produced meanwhile. It is enough time to question again Ghimpu, Ionita and other persons. I think we should close the hearings next week,” said Liberal MP Valeriu Munteanu, who is a member of the commission. Liberal-Democrat lawmaker Tudor Deliu said the issue of casinos is important and necessitates more time. He proposed allowing the commission to work by October 1. Liberal-Democrat MP Veaceslav Ionita, who was accused of illegally including an amendment allowing halving the tax for a casino table in the Casino Law by the Liberal leader Mihai Ghimpu, expressed his concern about the Liberals’ hurry. “There were made serious accusations and the commission should establish if they are founded or not. The accusations were made not by an ordinary person, but by a former acting head of state. I do not understand this hurry,” he stated. In the same sitting, the MPs voted in Raisa Apolschi, of the Liberal-Democratic group, as meeting chair, while Liberal lawmaker Valeriu Munteanu as secretary of the commission. The dispute about the Law on the Licensing of Entrepreneurial Activities, known as the Casino Law, arouse when Mihai Ghimpu accused Veaceslav Ionita of falsifying records in the law. He said that incomes of 5.6 million lei failed to be collected into the state budget as a result of such an act.