The chairman of the National Council of Historical Monuments Iurie Povar said the criticism leveled at the new composition of the Council, which started work only recently, is out of place. The Council members should be treated with more confidence and ,what is more important, should be allowed to work. The statements come after a group of protesters requested the responsible ministry to annul the decision by which the new composition of the Council was set.
“There is no use criticizing a Council that just started work. Let’s look back! We are very concerned about the history of the nation, but we do not want to look back, to what was there two-three months ago, to make a comparison between the approach and attitude of the previous Council and the attempts, challenges witnessed by the current Council. It’s time to combine forces and have discussions, debates with concrete proposals and rational approaches,” Iurie Povar stated in a news conference at IPN.
He believes it is not fair to idealize the previous composition of the Council. He gave as example a project to restore and conserve the Bender Fortress that was launched by the UNDP and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research when the previous Council worked. Then, the tender contest was won by an Italian company with a local representative. After he made a field trip together with other colleagues, they saw that only attempts to renovate the fortress were made, the works being of a poor quality and affecting the importance of the sight. Nevertheless, the then chairman of the Council signed the proceedings and most of the members voted in favor even if the document contained negative opinions on the works.
Ion Ștefăniță, deputy chairman of the National Council of Historical Monuments, said the members of the previous Council had integrity problems and their actions were monitored by anticorruption officers. “Why are some favored, while others are neglected? Doesn’t this generate suspicions of corruption?” he said, noting he is outside politics and permanently said what he thought. “We stopped the process of demolishing the historical center of the city and will now make effort for the mechanism for strengthening, restoring and ensuring the sustainable development of this city to be functional.”
On February 3, members of the Civic Congress Party mounted a protest against the construction of the multifunctional complex near the Circus. The several dozen protesters said that a campaign to destroy the historical monuments of the capital city is planned to be carried out in Chisinau. They demanded that the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research should annul its decision by which the current composition of the National Council of Historical Monuments was confirmed.
