Apartment sold for 4 lei per square meter and illegal rise in dorm rent

Former employees of the Ecology College purchased an apartment at the price of 4 lei per square meter, while the rent in a number of dormitories was increased groundlessly. These and other financial irregularities were made public in the September 13 meeting of the Audit Office, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Audit Office identified financial irregularities at a number of secondary, vocational and higher education institutions estimated at several millions of lei, Info-Prim Neo reports. The auditors established that the inspected colleges in 2010 spent more money than planned and thus generated credit debts of 1.4 million lei. The monthly dorm rent per student was raised and there was illegally collected a sum of 111,300 lei. But a sum of 117,200 lei failed to be collected as no tax was imposed on other groups of dwellers. According to the Audit Office’s report, the given colleges inefficiently used the budget money when paying salaries. At some of the colleges, there were paid exaggerated salaries and bonuses, while at the Construction College in Hancesti 1,500 untaught lessons were paid. Five institutions of higher education, among which the Technical University of Moldova, the Academy of Economic Sciences and the Teacher Training University “Ion Creanga”, inappropriately used the public patrimony and did not indicate the value of the leased land in the accounting documents. They planned the costs with deviations from the legislation and there appeared unpredicted expenses. The auditors determined that some of the rectors and pro-rectors of the monitored universities received salaries that were 3.6 times higher than the average salary of the employees working in education and six times higher than the average salary in economy. According to Minister of Education Mihail Sleahtitski, those who committed violations will be held accountable. Audit Office chairman Serafim Urecheanu said the materials about the identified irregularities will be submitted to the law enforcement bodies.