Chisinau City Hall transfers 15m lei of debt owed to Termocom

The Chisinau City Hall has transferred another 15 million lei of the debt of 140 million lei it owes to the heat supplier Termocom SA, the head of the General Finance Division Maria Caraus told Info-Prim Neo on Tuesday. The money was allocated from the income and local taxes collected into the municipal budget. Caraus said that the City Hall filed an application to the Ministry of Finance on January 23 asking for an 80 million loan, but no answer came yet. If the Ministry of Finance refuses to grant the loan, the Chisinau administration will have to seek a loan from a commercial institution, but will have to pay interest in this case, the head of the General Finance Division said. According to Maria Caraus, the local administration is to renegotiate the rescheduling of the debt to Termocom. Preliminary talks have been held with the director of the Finance Department of Termocom SA. Maria Caraus said that the accounts of the municipal administration are not under threat of being blocked for the time being. “All the salaries for December and the services for maintaining the subdivisions have been paid. The danger will appear on February 1. During the several days remaining, we will cooperate with the Ministry of Finance and the banks,” the head of the Finance Division said. Last week, the Ministry of Justice sequestrated again the accounts of the local public administration. There were blocked a number of accounts managed by the Chisinau administration and accounts managed by the settlements that form part of the municipality. In October 2008, the Ministry sequestrated seven bank accounts of the Chisinau City Hall. Later, a court unblocked the account from which the civil savants are paid salaries. A hearing on this case was to take place at the Centru Court on January 27, but it was postponed because the judge examining the case was sick.