Chisinau councillors’ initiative to go to Premier to solve heat supply-related problem will not produce results, expert says

“I don’t think that the councillors’ initiative to go to Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev to try to find a solution to the problem of heat supply in Chisinau will produce results,” the director of the nongovernmental organization that offers consultancy in economic and social matters Business Consulting Institute, the former municipal councillor Mihai Roscovan said when asked by Info-Prim Neo to comment on the tense situation regarding the heat supply in the capital city. The local authorities must cooperate with the administration of Termocom to reach a consensus about the tariff. According to the cited source, the tariff must be undoubtedly increased, but how much and how to cover the increase must be decided at talks. The central authorities’ contribution to solving this problem is related to the direct responsibility of the government – to promote policies to protect the socially vulnerable groups of people. The fact that the central authorities avoid this responsibility shows what the real intentions of the Communist government are to punish the population and the local non-Communist administration for the June 3 vote, Mihai Roscovan said. He says that at the meeting on January 25, 2007 he warned the Council about the irregularities and consequences of the Chisinau Municipal Council’s decision to increase the heating charge and cover the difference in the old and new charges from the municipal budget. Afterwards, he published an analysis in the paper “Ziarul de Garda” saying that the decision-trap set by the government is dangerous and will have great costs. Mihai Roscovan says that it was the government that initiated the rise in tariffs, promising that it will cover 50% of the increased price. After the Communists lost the local elections, this promise was forgotten and the problem of heat is exaggerated in order to discredit the current municipal government. The director of the Business Consulting Institute says that although the CMC made a correct decision to cancel its previous decision, it was taken at an inopportune moment. The decision should have been taken in summer or should have come into force on January 1, 2008 simultaneously with the adoption of a new heating charge and of a mechanism for granting nominative compensations to the population. As long as the two problems remain unsolved, the heat supplier and the municipality will be in conflict, said Mihai Roscovan, quoted by Info-Prim Neo.