Municipality accused over space rental cases

A number of municipal councillors criticise the activity of Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) because it rents out spaces belonging to the municipal property without the clause that forbids the privatisation of these spaces. The councillor of the “Moldova Noastra” Alliance Party, Oleg Cernei, stated on Tuesday, 20 February, during the CMC session, that at the moment the majority decisions on rental are taken without being stipulated whether the leaseholder has or not the right to privatise the places. Such a procedure is incorrect, says Cernei, “because under the cover of non-governmental organisations, a lot of interested persons rent office spaces, but in two months they put them up for sale, getting sums of tens of thousands of euros.” According to the cited source, the General Division for Economy that manages the municipal property is changing into “a bogy charged with selling municipal property”. “Instead of having additional resources in the budget from renting out places, we, through the decisions we take, somehow allow the selling of the property”, said the councillor. He requested the division head, Vladimir Iermicioi, to bring to the next CMC meeting the information on the number of places rented out in 2006 and those that are already sold. According to the cited source, the legislation prescribes that the decision of privatisation spaces from municipal property belongs to the Division of privatisation of the Ministry of Economy and commerce, although the advantaged one in the privatisation process is the leaseholder, who gives claims that he made some investments in the building.