The Chisinau thermal energy supplier Termocom JSC condemns the councillors Valeri Climenco and Oleg Cernei for their behaviour. It says that the two councillors continued the misinformation campaign even after the new thermal energy tariff had been approved. According to a communiqué issued by the Trade Union Committee of Termocom, the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) approved the new tariff taking into account the real expenses for producing and transporting the thermal energy to the consumers, with the prices of natural gas, electrical energy, water and other resources needed in the process of producing and supplying thermal energy rising several fold since 1999. “Under such conditions, CMC did what it had to do a long time ago – approved a new tariff so as to provide normal living conditions for the Chisinau residents. Moreover, the councilors that voted to increase the tariff took care not to affect the population and allocated money from the budget to fully cover the difference in the new and old tariffs. It is a reasonable and wise decision,” the communiqué says. According to the same source, given such a situation the campaign organized by such politicians as Climenco, Cernei and others that feel the coming of elections with the aim of denigrating ‘the parties that voted to approve the new tariff and the staff of Termocom is meaningless and groundless. At the same time, the authors of the communiqué contest Climenco’s appeal not to pay the public utilities because “there is no money in the budget and therefore the population will have to pay large bills.” According to Termocom, the Chisinau City Hall has already transferred 28 million lei to cover the difference in tariffs, in accordance with the calculations made by the supplier. At the CMC’s meeting of February 15, Valeri Climenco accused the Communist and Christian-Democrat councillors of increasing the tariffs on thermal energy and drinking water. He said that by this decision, the coalition of the Communist and PPCD councillors headed by Vladimir Voronin and Iurie Rosca has thrown into poverty tens of thousands of budgetary workers, pensioners, people that form the vulnerable strata of the society. Voting to raise the tariffs, Climenco says, they have given birth to a new wave of poverty, deceiving the population that they will pay the difference from the municipal budget. A sum of 307 million lei was to be allocated from the local budget for paying the difference in tariffs.