Five City Hall officials under criminal investigation

At least five officials from the City Hall, including Deputy Mayor Nistor Grozavu, are suspected of abuse of authority for signing an acceptance certificate for an apartment block in Ciocana which doesn’t meet technical requirements. Deputy Mayor Nistor Grozavu said that the charges were laid in an unjustified way and that he didn’t feel guilty of any of his actions, Info-Prim Neo reports. The interim head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office Viorel Morari stated at a press conference on Wednesday, September 19, that the grounds for the prosecution were the complaints received from some of the inhabitants of the block. The investigation revealed that 14 of the requirements for putting the building into service weren’t met. The block wasn’t connected to the gas piping, gas supply wasn’t fully installed in 26 apartments, the works on the heating and hot water supply system weren’t finished, etc. Bogdan Zumbreanu, head of the prosecution division of the CCCEC, said that the criminal file involved several City Hall officials, members of the commission for the final acceptance of the block of flats, including a deputy mayor, a representative of the general division of architecture, urbanism and land relations, one from the division for discipline and authorizations in constructions and the Ciocana sector praetor. Their bureaus have been searched and some materials have been seized. “I want to make a call through you: they should not wait for the finalization of the investigation and the trial. We want the involved officials to be punished before the end of the prosecution”, said the head of division. Deputy Mayor Nistor Grozavu told the press that the final acceptance of the building was signed at the insistence of the association of future dwellers and there is a report in this regard. According to him, the charges are unjustified in the way they were laid. However, he admits there were some deviations from the general norms. He explained that these weren’t technical issues related to the building, but to some communication networks. The situation is more about an internal conflict between two groups of dwellers and this conflict should not be put on someone else’s shoulders. The Deputy Mayor added that he is ready to be suspended from office should the court rule so. The criminal file was initiated for excess of duties by officials from the Chisinau City Hall with serious consequences, which is punishable with 6 to 10 years of jail and a ban from certain positions and jobs for 2 to 5 years.