The Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” asserts the Chisinau Arena project was launched with multiple violations. According to it, the commune of Stăuceni was deprived of almost 70 hectares of farmland, 59 of which are not used at all in the building works. Deputy Parliament Speaker Alexandru Slusari, who is the deputy chairman of the party, made approaches to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the National Anticorruption Center, asking to be informed if a criminal case was started over this, IPN reports.
“The feasibility study was carried out superficially by an unknown NGO. The tender contest was organized artificially with the involvement of one participant from Turkey. A state-owned enterprises headed by an adviser of Candu (e.n Andrian Candu, former Parliament Speaker) was founded in a hurry. No elementary calculations were done as regards the recouping of investments based on the Arena’s capacity against the number of people in the country,” Alexandru Slusari posted on Facebook.
According to the MP, the lot was most probably pledged and re-pledged. There is a big risk that the state can anytime remain without this lot whose commercial value is minimum €70 million.
“We ask to be informed if a criminal case was started based on information furnished by the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure in August 2019 about the erection of the Chisinau Arena Complex, including the exploitation, pledging or re-pledging of the lot of 59 ha located in the vicinity of the construction whose allotment remains unjustified,” reads the letter to the PGO and NAC.
Alexandru Slusari also requests the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure to provide clarification over the completion of the construction work and the fate of the adjoining lot of 59 hectares.
The Chisinau Arena is being erected under a public-private partnership and has a capacity of up to 5,000 places and sports grounds, recreational places, a swimming pool, a tennis court and places for exhibitions, conferences and meetings. In October 2019, the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office said it was carrying out investigations into the alleged illegalities related to the implementation of the project to build the Arena. Only a number of persons have been questioned so far.
In the middle of last December, the authorities said the Chisinau Arena will become functional at the end of this April. According to Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Anatol Usatyi, the facility can be made available only when its functionality is fully ensured according to its general purpose, not in parts.
