The simple motion against the policy and work of the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure failed. The MPs rejected the motion submitted by the PAS and PPPDA MPs on March 12, IPN reports.
The motion says that the Ministry in January, without having the confirmation of the Ministry of Finance, in a hurry launched tender contests to choose contractors for the rehabilitation of a number of national roads. Also, in breach of the law on public procurement, the Ministry didn’t place the notice about the tender contests in the Official Journal of the European Union. The limitation of the foreign operators’ access to government procurement of national strategic interest, noticed in the economic policies pursued by the Ministry, has serious repercussions for the economic sector and for other sensitive areas, including for the implementation of the Association Agreement and the fight against corruption.
Minister of Economy Anatol Usatyi said in Parliament that a number of notices of intent about public procurement procedures for carrying out road rehabilitation, modernization and building works were published in the second half of this January. A series of tender contests were later launched on the electronic platform and more contests will be soon announced for major infrastructure projects.
Asked about the Russian loan that is to be provided for repairing roads, the minister said no definitive answer was yet received over this loan. If the financial resources do not become accessible, the tender contests will have to be annulled.
In another development, Anatol Usatyi said that many works last year were performed under the contracts signed with the EBRD, EIB and the World Bank. The volume of works was practically twice larger than the average for the past three years. This offers the possibility of starting negotiations on the next tranches with these partners.
In his speech, PPPDA MP Alexandru Slusari said the tender contests were launched with violations of the law, strictly based on this Russian loan. The contests could be annulled or not, but Moldova definitely does not need such a minister of economy.
Socialist MP Petru Burduja said the criticism leveled at projects that are important for the country is political in character. “I think none of those who signed the motion didn’t read it as questions were put, but not over the text of the motion,” he stated.
At the suggestion of the Parliament’s commission on economy, budget and finance, most of the attending MPs voted against the simple motion.
