Chisinau municipality accuses Govt. of intention to privatize building for orphans

The Chisinau Municipality accuses the Government of intending to privatize a building block in Chisinau meant for orphan children to live after leaving orphanages, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the Constructions Direction head Vasile Panfil, the local authorities identified a building for graduates from boarding schools, but the Government decided to switch its ownership from municipal to state, and now it wants to privatize it. Vasile Panfil told the City Hall's staff meeting on November 24 that the Government did not react to the Hall's request to erase the building from the privatization list and render it back to the municipality. According to Panfil, by selling the unfinished building the Government actually targets the plot adjacent to the building: an area of over 3 ha belonging to the municipality. Initially the plot of land was meant to build a hospital, but then the City Hall changed its destination to help the orphans, as 500,000 lei have already being allocated for projections. The law makes the local public authorities responsible for ensuring orphans with dwellings space. Chisinau's mayor Dorin Chirtoaca said he notified the Moldovan president on this issue, but received letters answering that offering parentless children dwelling space is not the president's competence. When asked by Info-Prim Neo, the head of the Government's press service Vitalie Condratchi has said he knows no details concerning this case. Sources from the Constructions Ministry said the block was not owned by it. There are over 1,100 orphan or abandoned children in Chisinau.