The inspections carried out at the Micăuți Quarry revealed a number of violations in the method of extracting mineral resources. There was identified an exorbitant difference between the quantity of extracted minerals and the quantity declared by the enterprise. This is of over 1.4 million cubic meters of minerals. As a result, as the Inspectorate for Environmental Protection determined, the damage caused by the illegal extraction of minerals came to 684 million lei. The figures were presented by the head of the commission of inquiry into the method of exploiting useful minerals, MP Nicolae Ciubuc, in a news conference, IPN reports.
The MP said that as a result of the inspection that ended on January 25, it was found out that the quarry continues to illegally extract minerals from lots that do not belong to it. These are over 20 ha in area and belong to the local public authorities, being classed as farmland. The damage gauged by the Inspectorate exceeds 2 million lei.
According to Nicolae Ciubuc, the most serious thing is that, seeing that things do not stand well, representatives of the enterprise went to court and, as a result, the Strășeni Court passed its judgment the next day after the Inspectorate issued its ascertaining document. This is a doubtful, abusive and illegal judgment by which all the institutions, authorities and bodies with inspection and supervision duties were banned from carrying out inspections at this enterprise without the consent of the insolvency administration or administrator.
Therefore, the commission decided to notify the Prosecutor General’s Office. It also calls on the responsible institutions to challenge the court decision, while the Superior Council of Magistracy is asked to take note of such decisions and to pronounce on the legality of this judgment. The MP said the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment should initiate the procedure for terminating the contract with this quarry.
In another development, the commission’s chairman said that there was also examined the method of managing the state property situated in Ukraine – the two quarries in Pervomaisk and Cernăuți. “The information presented by the Public Property Agency shows the Republic of Moldovan practically lost these enterprises,” noted Nicolae Ciubuc. According to him, the two enterprises accumulated debts, in part fictitious, which were created by the managers. Being free from the founder’s control, the managers did what they wanted and brought the two enterprises close to bankruptcy. A part of the property was embezzled. The started criminal cases will most probably not enable to recover those assets.
