The privatization of the state-owned company Air Moldova is an element of the process of legalizing the funds stolen from the banking system by capital amnesty, considers Transparency International Moldova expert Veaceslav Negruță. He noted the capital amnesty law was adopted in Parliament on July 26 at a high speed, during two days, and in the evening of the same day Moldova’s Government announced the privatization of a number of state-owned companies, including Air Moldova, IPN reports.
The expert presumes a large part of the money was withdrawn from the state-owned company earlier and an artificial situation of insolvency was created. “The privatization of Air Moldova is an element of the process of legalizing the illegalities about which I spoke, by this capital amnesty. We, like economic experts, regard it like this and foreign experts only consider so. The authorities did their best to make sure the process of adopting the law was maximally non-transparent and the privatization process generated a series of questions as to how Air Moldova was privatized,” Veaceslav Negruță stated in a program on TV8 channel.
He does not rule out the possibility that Blue Air, the Romanian company that took part in the privatization of Air Moldova, was used as an image and was pad a particular commission for this situation and this could be later withdrawn by the model of the concession of the Chisinau International Airport. The limited liability company that bought Air Moldova was founded on August 23 and the payment of 50 million lei for taking over the company and the clearing of its debts will be the responsibility of two Moldovan citizens who have controlling interest in the Ltd. “What did the state actually gain from this privation? – 50 million lei that can be equaled to the cost of a wing of a plane from Air Moldova’s fleet,” stated the expert.
Sorin Ioniță, president of “Expert Forum” of Romania, said the low-cost company Blue Air has very small profit margins, has debts to Romanian airports and he cannot understand where this could take money from to purchase Air Moldova. “It seems that they do not come with money. The Moldovan partners come with money. They get in with the name, but do not have control as the Romanian company owns only 49% of the shares (...) Who are the Moldovan partners who will take the decision as they have 51%? This is a very suspicious transaction,” he stated, adding the announcement of the privatization of Air Moldova was hidden so that serious foreign companies could not take part in the tender contest.
Former secretary of state at the Ministry of Transport Oleg Tofilat said the privatization of Air Moldova should have taken place based on a special project approved by a Government decision. “To my mind, it is an abuse by the Public Property Agency and at least negligence on the part of the Government as this didn’t stop the privatization. The second moment is – why was Air Moldova given to a startup with the statutory capital of €25,000 and what guarantees did the Public Property Agency receive that this new owner can settle the debts of Air Moldova?” wondered Oleg Tofilat.
The Public Property Agency recently announced that the commercial contest to privatize the Moldovan airline Air Moldova was won by Civil Aviation Group SRL that manages the Romanian airline Blue Air. The value of the transaction is 1.2 billion lei. The press reported that the new owner will pay 50 million lei into Moldova’s budget, while the rest of the sum will go to cover the debts of Air Moldova.
