In a protest mounted in front of the building of the Public Property Agency, members of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” demanded that the Agency’s director Ghenadie Țepordei should resign. Candidates for MP running on the PPPDA’s ticket said Ghenadie Țepordei fraudulently managed a number of state-run enterprises, such as Moldova’s Railways, the Giurgiulești International Port, the Chisinau International Airport and others and billions of lei that were to reach the state budget were stolen as a result, IPN reports.

PPPDA leader Andrei Năstase said the schemes to rob state-run enterprises were managed by the former Democratic leader Vladimir Plahotniuc.

The party’s vice president Igor Munteanu noted that the Public Property Agency is among the agencies that appropriated the largest public funds. The Giurgiulești Port was sold for €1,000 through the agency of an offshore company from Cyprus. The stolen funds could have been used to raise pensions and scholarships.

PPPDA vice president Alexandru Slusari noted that this Agency, instead of defending people’s interests, defends the interests of the Socialist leader Igor Dodon and of Democratic MP Vladimir Andronachi.

Stela Macari, candidate on behalf of the PPPDA, stated that those from the administration of the Public Property Agency annually collect allowances of hundreds of thousands of lei, but they don’t work in the interests of the people. Moldova’s Railways is close to bankruptcy with debts of about 800 million lei.

Candidate Inga Grigoriu said the technological irrigation stations could have supplied water to the neighboring countries too if they had been correctly managed, but the Public Property Agency proposed that a part of these stations should be closed. Without irrigation, no products are available at the local level and, as a result, contributions are not paid into the state budget.

The Public Property Agency issued a press release, saying it regrets the insinuations made by political players against the institution and asking not to engage it in their political and electoral activities. It noted that the Giurgiulești Free International Port is not managed by the Agerncy and it cannot intervene in the related disputes.