Economy Ministry to present new plan for restructuring SA Termocom

A new plan for restructuring SA Termocom will be made public next week, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar. Invited to a meeting of the Chisinau Press Club, Valeriu Lazar said that the last term of three years of the nine, since the insolvency procedure was launched at the heat supplier, expires on February 5, 2012. The creditors offered the company the possibility of improving its financial situation by restructuring the management and the relations with the consumers and clients. The Deputy Prime Minister reminded that the deadline for implementing the plan-procedure was extended two times, while the last three years were given to SA Termocom as an exception, by Government Decision, for the reason that it provides a vital service for the population. But the restructuring wasn’t successful and the historical debts of over 2 billion lei weren’t settled, the losses in the heating pipes remain high, while the consumers are dissatisfied with the quality of the services and disconnect themselves from the centralized heating system (over15% of the apartments). SA Termocom managed only to clear the current debts for heat, thought problems continue to be encountered in this respect, said Valeriu Lazar. He also said that the new restructuring plan covers the entire thermoenergy sector, not only SA Termocom. It was worked out by the Ministry of Economy with the assistance of the World Bank and other international experts. There will be made technical and management-related changes. The plan envisions three restructuring possibilities, including the liquidation of SA Termocom so that the consumers are supplied with heat by the thermoelectric plants, without intermediaries. In the recent public meetings centering on the adjustment of the heat charges, there were expressed a number of opinions about the modality of restructuring the thermoenergy sector and diminishing the burden of tariffs on end-users. National specialists and representatives of consumer protection organizations said the heating pipes are old and the only possibility of reducing losses and improving the services provided for end-users is to attract investments. According to SA Termocom administrator Mihai Cernei, the necessary annual investments amount to 250 million lei. In 2011, SA Termocom made investments of 83 million lei.