The investment project “Restructuring Moldova’s Railways” that has a total budget of €109 million and is financed by the EBRD and EIB is practically not implemented, said the head of the Parliament’s public finances control commission Igor Munteanu.
“Each of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova started to pay this money back as creditors, while Moldova’s Railways does not use what it brought by investments, locomotives, transformation of railroad sections. This shows the made investments are not put to good use and there is no investment plan that would match the function of the Administration Board and would do away with the chaos witnessed at this enterprise,” Igor Munteanu stated in a press briefing, being quoted by IPN.
In the hearings staged by the public finances control commission, Adrian Onceanu, acting director general of Moldova’s Railways, said the 12 locomotives bought within the EBRD-EIB project that were delivered on July 31 are used and bring benefits to the enterprise. A part of them were subject to technical overhaul. They are used to transport freight. It is impossible to determine the efficiency of the new locomotives now. It’s yet definite that they consume less diesel fuel and have a greater haulage capacity. The planned tender contests were held in 2020 and the winner was decided.
According to a report by the Court of Auditors for 2018 – 2019, the state-run enterprise Moldova’s Railways committed a number of deviations from the regulatory framework. One of them is that it didn’t register and didn’t ensure the integrity and reporting of about 1,134.88 ha of publicly owned lots of land managed by it.
