"Moldovagaz's failed and inappropriately structured purchases led to an increase in charges and the mistake made by the company should not go unpunished, especially since the energy sector is not only crucial for Moldova, but also one of the main elements in the hybrid war waged by Russia,” said the expert of WatchDog.MD Community Andrei Curăraru. He noted that the artificial keeping of Vadim Ceban at the helm of the company by Moscow (through Gazprom) has caused considerable damage to the Moldovan citizens, which are convenient for the Kremlin regime and pro-Russian forces in the Republic of Moldova, IPN reports.
"Moldogavaz, in the person of director Vadim Ceban, is responsible for the failure to purchase gas at the best price for the cold period and, therefore, for the increase in the charge for consumers. It was Moldovagaz's mistake that the July purchases did not take place, when it was possible to purchase them at much lower prices. It is important to understand that even in this situation, this winter's charge is not higher than that of last winter, when household consumers paid 18.06 lei per cubic meter. The recently approved charge is 16.74 lei, which is why the Government says that this winter we will not pay more than last winter. But we could have paid much less if the purchases had been made correctly," explained Andrei Curăraru.
Referring to the made mistake, the expert said that in April, the responsibility for purchasing gas passed from JSC Energocom to JSC Moldovagaz, which is headed by Vadim Ceban. The purchases for autumn-winter were initiated in July and the bids they made submitted not be accepted on the market for three reasons.
According to Curăraru, first of all they tried to buy too large volumes. The July 12 proposal alone was for nearly 500 million cubic meters of gas. However, no supplier accepted such a bid.
"Secondly, they proposed to pay post factum, but they practice the payment in advance on the market. Who would risk such an option, with a company with big financial problems like Moldovagaz? Thirdly, they requested a 20% consumption deviation. That is, effectively any seller would have had to keep an additional reserve of 20% for a long period, even if market practice shows that it can be a maximum of 5%. By the time Ceban and his team had figured out how to make purchases on the stock exchange correctly, August came, and on August 7, Ukraine took control of the Sudzha station, which led to an essential increase in prices. At that time, the authorities and our colleague Sergiu Tofilat recommended Moldovagaz to temporarily stop the purchases, until the prices normalized, which happened, but the chance to purchase gas within the limits of the purchase price set in the previous charge was missed," explained the WatchDog.MD expert.
According to Andrei Curăraru, Moldovagaz purchased gas at higher prices and this, in his opinion, was a mistake made by Vadim Ceban, either out of ignorance or bad intention, and the parliamentary hearings did not clarify this aspect.
"The fact is that because of Moldovagaz, the charge increased for everyone. We must understand that Vadim Ceban remains the chief of Moldovagaz with the support of Gazprom. Despite attempts to change the director of the institution, Gazprom did not convene the Supervisory Board in order to appoint another Board of Directors and a director elected through competition. Why Gazprom cares so much about Vadim Ceban and why our authorities forgive him for the so-called mistake is not clear. What is obvious is that in the hybrid war waged by Russia in Moldova, the energy aspect is crucial and the increase in charges as a result of the decision of a man, who is directly supported by Moscow, is difficult to categorize as an ordinary mistake," said Curăraru.
Last week, the National Agency for Energy Regulation approved a 3.4 lei increase in the natural gas charge to 15.5 lei per cubic meter. With VAT, the charge is 16.74 lei. The adjusted rates took effect on December 1.
