Owing to the delayed reforms and corruption, Moldova annually loses at least €100 million in foreign assistance, former minister of agriculture Vasile Bumacov said in an interview for Radio Free Europe. He noted he was also persecuted because he opposed the mishmashes in the agricultural sector when he was minister, IPN reports.
The Prosecutor General’s Office opened an investigation into the provision of subsidies in agriculture. The former minister said the mechanism of providing subsidies was very well thought out, but he fell in disgrace when he vehemently opposed the collection of ‘tithe’ on export. “I did a thing that I don’t know if somebody dared to do – I fired the PLDM’s deputy head from the post held at the National Food Safety Agency and this was my ‘end’,” stated Vasile Bumacov.
Asked if he foreign donors of Moldova will yet provide assistance to the Moldovan agricultural sector, Vasile Bumacov said that we already lost a lot. “ENPARD wasn’t kicked off. We didn’t get what Georgia received before us, even if we were at a more advanced stage. Do you know how many money do we lose due to this? I think at least €100 million in assistance. I will give an example. The Americans gave us US$262 million for roads, irrigation, post-harvest infrastructure and an extraordinary project. The second phase of this project was to start this year. It could have amounted to €500 million,” said the ex-minister, adding that this project was stopped because corruption wasn’t rooted out and nobody wanted to deal with this.
Vasile Bumacov considers it is possible to take the state out of captivity only by a miracle, if a new generation or something special appears to promote the country’s interests. “I worked for five years at the Ministry and nobody asked something me about the country’s interests. Everyone accused me of being unable to extort money. Corruption was the biggest problem faced at the Ministry,” he stated.
Asked who prevented him from doing something to improve the state of affairs, Vasile Bumacov said there are ‘influential guys’. “The Moldovans have their own ‘Taliban fighters’ in several radio and TV stations. Everyone wants to help us, but we do not want. I negotiated a multitude of projects and brought a lot of money, but encountered only problems. I was punished for everything good I did,” he stated.
