The former acting mayor of Chisinau Ruslan Codreanu said the situation in which Apă-Canal Chișinău found itself is the result of improper management. According to him, Apă-Canal was a profitable entity in 2017-2019, but debts started to be accumulated in 2020 owing to the inefficient way in which the money borrowed from the EBRD was managed, IPN reports.
The ex-acting mayor of the capital city said Apă-Canal is close to bankruptcy as the money taken from the EBRD wasn’t used to modernize the water and sewerage networks, but went on unjustified pay raises.
“In 2017-2019, Apă -Canal had own revenues totaling 237 million lei. The financial problems at Apă-Canal began in 2020. Apă-Canal is a joint stock company that is fully owned by the municipality of Chisinau. Its administration fully consists of representatives of the City Hall and the Municipal Council. Apă-Canal took out a loan from the EBRD and needs to repay the money. The borrowed money was to be used to develop the infrastructure, but nothing was invested in the replacement of pipes. The people from Apă-Canal decided to use this money to increase their salaries twofold. The salary of the director rose to 70,000-80,000 lei,” Ruslan Codreanu stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei channel.
He noted the EBRD contracted a British audit company and this warned that Apă-Canal has been managed inappropriately. But the municipal authorities ignored the warnings about the possible bankruptcy of the company.
“Since 2020, the audit company has warned that if the situation is not remedied, Apă-Canal will go bankrupt. Now Ceban says that Apă-Canal is short of funds due to the rise in electricity charges. The company has worked at a loss since 2020, but the problem has been hidden. Ceban has dealt with the replacement of curbs for three years. We made approaches to the NAC. It goes not to inefficiency, but to bad intention. Apă-Canal does not provide any service. All the services are provided by private business entities based on contracts,” said Ruslan Codreanu.
Currently, Apă-Canal Chișinău owes almost 70 million lei to Premier Energy. The power supply has warned it will disconnect the company from the power supply. Earlier, the mayor general of Chisinau Ion Ceban said the disconnection of S.A. Apă-Canal Chișinău from the power supply would lead to a halt in the work of Termoelectrica and to the interruption in the heat and water supply services in the city.
