Advertisement Agencies Association urges City Hall to annul contract with “EPA MEDIA”

The Advertisement Agencies Association of Moldova (AAPM) urges the Chisinau City Hall to cancel the contract with “EPA MEDIA” firm, commissioned to build omnibus stops and allowed to post outdoor advertisement throughout the city. AAPM spokesperson Ludmila Andronic, editor-in-chief of “Business Class” magazine, stated on Thursday, February 8, at a press conference that this contract might corner the entire outdoor advertisement industry in the capital. As she states, the association is bitterly disappointed by the method by which the respective contract was signed and by the way preferential conditions to build over 2,000 advertisement constructions in the city were granted. Advertisement agencies are indignant at the fact that they did not receive any invitation to participate in the tender, except for a formal one on the last day of the contest, which shows the disrespectful attitude of local authorities towards Chisinau’s advertisement agencies. Ludmila Andronic mentioned that earlier this week, AAPM addressed open letters to the Parliamentary Commission for Economic Policy, Finance and Budget, the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, the Municipal Council and Chisinau City Hall, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Anticorruption Centre, requesting these bodies to check the corruptibility of the contract signed by former mayor Vasile Ursu with “EPA MEDIA” firm. At present, advertisement agencies are expecting official stances related to this contract and hope that the situation will be settled equitably and legally. Councillor of “Our Moldova Alliance” (AMN) faction Oleg Cernei recently stated that a presidential advisor and the unaffiliated councillor Mihai Severovan, with the support of the former interim mayor Vasile Ursu, are behind the deal with the Austrian firm “EPA MEDIA”. In his public interpellation, addressing the Municipal Public Prosecutor’s Office and the City Hall leadership, the AMN councillor stated that the Austrian firm won the tender for building 300 public waiting stations in Chisinau and posting billboards with serious violations of the legislation, due to a lobby. CMC decided at the session of November 28, 2006, to announce a tender to commission the right to build omnibus stops. By ignoring the legislation concerning the established terms for organising a tender, as well as the CMC decision, Ursu concluded a contract with “EPA MEDIA” on behalf of the “City Hall”, a body which doesn’t exist, Cernei said. This way, Ursu offered the company the right to install 1500 big billboards, 600 smaller panels and advertisement on all the pillars in the municipality, Cernei says.