Representatives of the group of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) on the Chisinau Municipal Council (CM) on Monday filed a denunciation with the Prosecutor General’s Office about the loans taken out by Chisinau City Hall. According to them, the lending took place in breach of the legislation, in the absence of CMC decisions, IPN reports.

Deputy chairman of the PAS group on the CMC Dumitru Ivanov told a press briefing that it is a new denunciation on the “illegalities committed daily at the Chisinau City Hall”. “We are at the end of May and the City Hall still doesn’t have an approved budget for 2024,” said the councilor.

According to him, the draft budget was hidden in the drawers of the City Hall and when the provisional budget was published, it became clear for what reason. Namely, it was seen that the residents of Chisinau have to pay enormous money for loans taken out by the City Hall. “We discovered that during the first year of his tenure alone, mayor Ion Ceban made this city owe 1.5 billion lei. It is an enormous amount for Chisinau municipality. Moreover, after analyzing these loans, we learned that over 700 million lei was raised by the Chisinau City Hall in the absence of a CMC decision, which seems serious to us. It is an abusive violation of the legislation,” stated Dumitru Ivanov.

Sergiu Stoian, deputy chairman of the PAS group, noted that in 2021-2023, Ion Ceban concluded loan agreements to the value of about 735 million lei with a number of commercial banks of Moldova. According to him, the any agreement to borrow money by the Chisinau City Hall was to be accompanied by an authorizing decision of the CMC, but this was absent. “The commercial banks were misled, being presented only with decisions regarding the approval of the corresponding annual budget, which cannot replace a Council decision on loan approval,” said the councilor.

They requested the PGO to hold the public servants from the City Hall who committed illegalities accountable for abuse of power and abuse of office.

Contacted by IPN for details, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General’s Office Violina Moraru said the complaint was received and will be examined in accordance with the law.