Chisinau councilor demands to dismiss Government

A number of opposition councilors in the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) are unhappy with the work of heat supplier Termocom and with the way in which the Government involved in settling the heating crisis. Democratic councilor Oazu Nantoi has suggested his colleagues to ask the Parliament to dismiss the Government, Info-Prim Neo reports. Oazu Nantoi made this proposal as an interpellation at the beginning of an extraordinary sitting of the CMC Thursday. He is dissatisfied with the memorandum on settling the energy crisis voted by the CMC on November 12. “We have to sell our trousers to pay Termocom,” Nantoi stated. In response Communist faction leader Svetlana Popa has said the accusations of the Government are groundless, and councilor Nantoi “is concerned only with international institutions and appears only to make statements.” CMC chairman Eduard Musuc has said the memo and the municipality's commitment were not a proposal by the Government. “I personally made proposals as to the memo I personally asked for the Government's loan.” He has added the situation was unfrozen by the CMC by voting for the memorandum and not by the Goivernment. PLDM faction leader Alexandru Tanase says the provisions of the memorandum are disproportionate, it has many commitments assumed by the municipality and very few assurances on the part of the other signatories. “Moldovagaz can stop the gas again again if we don't sell 35 ha of plots till November 21,” he said. Moldova Noastra Alliance councilor Oleg Cernei has proposed to debate the Termocom issue through the bankruptcy procedure it has been subject to since 2001. He asks the judiciary to sort the matter out. “They beat about the bush on purpose and here is the clue. Termocom's manager hides something and blackmails the City Hall,” Oleg Cernei added. The majority rejected the idea to include the Termocom issue into the order of the day. The memorandum agreed by the CMC, Termocom and Moldovagaz, approved by the CMC on November 12, provides for a approving a heat tariff of 740 lei/Gcal, till 21 November. The residents will pay 540 lei, and the rest will be made up for from the municipal budget. The municipality shall pay off debts of 148 million lei and other 60 million to accrue till the year-end. 70 million are to be borrowed from the Government and must be returned till the year-end. The rest of the money, Council's chairman Eduard Musuc ensures, will be gathered from selling 35 ha of public municipal land. The memorandum was voted by all the CMC factions except for PLDM and AMN. Oazu Nantoi did not attend that sitting.