Chisinau City Hall says it will appeal against Moldova-Gaz to General Prosecutor’s Office

The Chisinau City Hall will file an application at the General Prosecutor’s Office against Moldova-Gaz because it hinders the supply of heat to the Chisinau residents. The application will be lodged on November 10 in the morning. Such an announcement was made at a meeting of the Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca and representatives of the dwellers associations of Rascani, Buiucani and Botanica districts on November 9, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the mayor, Termocom did not start supplying heat even if the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) has allocated the 36 million lei asked for paying the debt to Moldova-Gaz. After the money was allotted, Moldova-Gaz refused to supply natural gas to Termocom, demanding that the heating charge be raised to 820 lei/Gcal. “Moldova-Gaz does not have the right to demand that the heating charge be increased and if the heat supply to the population is not resumed, I will make public the refusal to discuss the rise in the charge, while Moldova-Gaz and Termocom will bear responsibility for the consequences if the population revolts,” Dorin Chirtoaca said. According to Chirtoaca, the Chisinau residents must not be blackmailed because somebody wants a charge of 820 lei/Gcal or because somebody does not like the administration of the Chisinau City Hall. “When the people hear of such a sum, they will refuse to pay for the heat and Termocom will not get even 230 lei/Gcal,” Chirtoaca said. According to the mayor general, the heat turns into a weapon for political blackmail aimed at putting the Chisinau administration in a bad light. “If the higher charge is not approved, Moldova-Gaz will not supply gas and, respectively, the city will not be supplied with heat. As a result, the people will revolt against the mayor. If CMC raises the heating charge to 820 lei/Gcal, the people will also be dissatisfied with the work of the City Hall. This is the goal pursued,” the mayor said. “In order to raise the heating charge, the authorities should increase the pensions and salaries of the population first and the Government should intervene and solve these problems because it should assume the mistakes of those that governed Chisinau during 10 years. As a shareholder and members of the Administration Board of Moldova-Gaz, the Government should not allow that the company stops the supply of gas in the municipality,” the mayor explained. According to economist Veaceslav Ionita, the heat supply is a monopole service and there should be clear rules accepted by everyone in this case. “The price must be reasonable and the population should pay exactly what they should for the heat, while Termocom should receive money from other sources so that it could attract investment to improve its own activity. It is not possible to let the population pay for heat and cover this company’s investments for a period of time,” Ionita said. According to Veaceslav Ionita, besides paying compensations for heat, the Chisinau City Hall is also forced to spend additionally at least 10 million lei on the creation and running of an institution that would distribute the money. “Such an institution should have been created by the central authorities during eight years, but they did not do so,” the economist says. On November 7, CMC decided to allocate the money asked by Termocom for paying the debt to Moldova-Gaz. Termocom asked for 36 million lei of the debt of 176 million lei that the Chisinau administration owes to the heat supplier. On November 4, Termocom stopped supplying heat and hot water to two districts of Chisinau and a number of suburbs, saying that Moldova-Gaz halted the supply of natural gas to it owing to the debts. The heat supplier won the legal case in which it asked that the heating charge be raised. Two courts ruled that the Chisinau administration should pay the difference in the heating charges and obliged it to pay 149 million lei created from the difference in the heating charge of 540 lei and the price at which the heat was supplied to the population - 233 lei.