A number of residents of Drepcauti village of Briceni district accuse their mayor Gennady Ioxa of abuse of power. The villagers were joined in by an investor that says that the mayor’s actions will lead to the bankruptcy of the firm and the appropriation of the land that this rents.

In a news conference at IPN, the investor’s representative Vasile Shunkoruv said that in 2015 a group of people led by Gennady Ioxa asked to sublet 900 ha cultivated by the foreign capital enterprise “Drebozaci”. Otherwise, they will have problems. The foreign investor refused to sublet the land. The enterprise made investments of millions of lei in agricultural machinery and land and employed over 100 persons, while the villagers received twice more than four years ago for the land leased out to the investor.

According to Vasile Shunkoruv, the conflict between “Drebozaci” and mayor Gennady Ioxa is used by the local mayor’s office, while the firm risks going bankrupt even if it does not have debts to the local and state budgets or lessors.

In 2015, the mayor, having powers of attorney from several lessors, filed lawsuits against “Drebozaci”. As a result, the 900 hectares were sowed by persons who didn’t have legal rights over the land, said Vasile Shunkoruv.

Elena Talin from Drepcauti said that until 2015 the people got along with each other. When Gennady Ioxa was elected mayor, the relations between people worsened significantly. The mayor promised 25,000 lei for her share of land, but she didn’t get anything. The woman considers the mayor won the elections because he promised to give the villagers by one sack of sugar and 1,000 lei. “He cannot manage himself, not speaking about a village,” stated Elena Talin.

Ex-mayor Larisa Ceban, currently Democratic councilor in Drepcauti, said she is not a supporter of Drebozaci, but the company since 2011 until 2015 paid taxes on which the village survived. Owing to the current mayor, Drepcauti is the only village in the district that does not yet have an adopted budget. Trees are cut down illegally, the employees of the mayor’s office do not go to work, while Gennady Ioxa deceives the locals and insults them and then calls the police.