More expensive heating will strain entire activity of Chisinau administration, says Mayor

The Chisinau authorities are warning again that if the request of the Termocom heat supplier to raise the charge for heating to 715 lei is satisfied, things could go wrong in the city. Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca urged the municipal functionaries to manage the public money with much efficiency and transparency to avoid financial troubles. If the heating charge is raised as proposed, the expenses of the municipality related to the charge hike will represent some 30 percent of the incomes to the 2008 city budget. As such expenses haven’t been planned, the whole activity of the local administration could be jeopardised, Dorin Chirtoaca told the City Hall sitting on Monday, February 25. Asked to predict the financial risks for 2008, the head of the City Finance Department, Maria Caraus, said some 560 million lei would be needed to cope with the potential charge hike, whereas only 68 million lei were earmarked for this purpose. 88 million lei could be distrained to carry out court decisions, with 10 million lei being already sequestered. According to Caraus, the municipality has already appealed to international organisations for help, including to the International Monetary Fund. The municipality also counts on the assistance of the World Bank in checking the calculations justifying the charge increase requested by Termocom. In addition, a notification has been sent to the Government. Earlier this month, the City Finance Department announced that the municipality had been obliged to pay approximately 10 million lei to enforce court decisions. Last year the municipality paid 3 million lei for that purpose. The 2008 city budget provides for revenues of 1.58 billion lei and for expenditures of 1.63 billion lei.