Economy Ministry proposed Communist administration should fire 10,000 budget-funded employees

The interdepartmental commission for the protection of state secrets desecretized a set of documents about non-transparent privatization during the Communist administration and proposals to dismiss 10,000 budget-funded employees, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a press release, the commission says that according to one of the documents the Ministry of Economy and Trade in February 2008 suggested firing 10,000 persons, mainly teachers during the next two years. On the other hand, the then head of the Security and Information Service Artur Reshetnikov anticipated that the implementation of such a decision would destabilize the situation in the country before the parliamentary elections. Another document dating from January 2008 concerns the supply of gas and heat. It stresses the necessity of increasing the gas charges for end-users in line with the purchase price of gas starting with mid-January 2008. In the same set of documents, former head of state Vladimir Voronin proposes privatizing, in nontransparent conditions, companies working in Moldova's energy sector. In another desecretized document, former Deputy Prime Minister Igor Dodon describes the steps that must be taken by the authorities to take over SA IPTEH. Later, Moldova lost a related case at the European Court of Human Rights.