MP of the Action and Solidarity Party Vladimir Bolea said that he looks at the privatization of the state-owned company SA “Metalferos”, which was announced by the Government, with great skepticism. According to him, during the past 26 years all the cases of privatization were a form of robbing the state. Before privatizing this company, an audit should be carried out to determine the state of affairs inside this, its revenues and assets, IPN reports.
“Up to the moment of privatization, we bring the companies to the knees or make them go bankrupt. They suffer losses and we put them up for privatization. They are bought at a very low price and start to work,” the MP stated in the talk show “Natalia Morari’s Politics” on TV8 channel.
Vladimir Bolea noted that in the case of “Metalferos”, a number of aspects should be clarified, including the monopoly held by this company. “First of all, we should clarify what we sell. We sell an enterprise that will no longer be a monopoly as, at legislative level, we already excluded this possibility. I hope that by selling this enterprise, we will not commit the same mistake, given the previous privatization experience. We will request the Court of Auditors to carry out an audit so that this says what assets and how much money in accounts the company has. The company should have revenues and these revenues should be state dividends. We must see what we sell and what we have as a state,” he said.
Political and economic commentator Victor Ciobanu said “Metalferos” no longer has assets as it was robbed in time. Furthermore, if it becomes a private company, no one will have objections to it. “Imagine that this company is not a monopoly now and it does not control 100% of the market, but only 50%. This is also an interesting motivation. Besides, now the Government feels great pressure in connection with the big problems experienced in implementing the budget. The scheme is closed nicely: on the one hand, we privatize the company and receive some money into the budget; on the other hand, the business goes and remains in the family,” he noted.
Economic expert Veaceslav Ioniță said that during over 20 years there was no case of privatization under normal conditions in the Republic of Moldova. The state-owned enterprises destroy any competition by their presence as the interests are great. “When I speak about state-owned enterprises, I see first of all our money leaving. (...) This enterprise remained without revenues as these went to another company and the National Anticorruption Center should also conduct a probe here,” he stated.
On January 27, Prime Minister Ion Chicu announced that the Government intends to privatize the joint stock company “Metalferos”, noting there will be by one monopoly fewer in the country.
