Metalferos suggests Filat was misinformed

Metalferos, the company which handles exports of scrap metal from Moldova, suggests that Prime Minister Vlad Filat was provided, in bad faith, with misleading information about the company's operations. This is how Metalferos explains the “serious and unfounded allegations” made recently by the Prime Minister during a TV show, Info-Prim Neo reports. “Following the political statements that you made, we came to see that you had been informed wrongly and in bad faith about the activity of Metalferos, which led to serious and unfounded allegations. We find ourselves obliged to offer relevant information and explanations both to you and to the misinformed mass media in order to restore the reputation of our company”, Metalferos said in a press statement published Thursday. The company appended to the statement audit reports documenting its exports operations, including through the Rybnitsa-based Moldova Steel Works (MSW). In particular, Metalferos informed that in the first eight months of this year it delivered over 175,600 tonnes of scrap metal, including about 90,000 tonnes to the MSW. In 2010, the company delivered 135,500 tonnes, including 85,300 tonnes to the MSW). In 2009 it delivered 60,900, exclusively to the MSW. This information presented, Metalferos seeks to dismiss Vlad Filat's allegations that some exported amounts' went unreported to the Moldovan fiscal service. “It appears that the authors of these speculations are not familiar with the particularities of operations at Metalferos, which makes deliveries for two purposes: export and processing. When delivered amounts are re-purposed, this is shown in the final annual report. For example, some amounts delivered for processing in 2009 remained blocked due to a stall in the MSW's operations, and they were later re-assigned for export, which was reflected accordingly in the 2010 final report and also reported to Moldova's customs and fiscal authorities. It is also an unsupported juggling with figures to say things like '12 tonnes were reported, but there were actually 40'. Multiple audits, the latest being conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs on August 16, confirm that the randomly verified delivered amounts matched those written in the accompanying documents”, the statement said. Further, the statement recalls that Metalferos is a state-owned company that yielded budget revenues of 130 million lei in three years alone in taxes and dividends. “Though there are interests to transfer these profits from the state to private hands, we express our confidence that, after receiving correct information, you (Prime Minister Vlad Filat) will support the company and its activity that is profitable for the state and beneficial for the Moldovan citizens”, the company said in concluding its statement.