The national public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) will ask the National Agency for the Protection of Competition to check the legality and correctness of setting the tariffs for the services provided by the sate-run company Radiocomunicatii. A relevant decision was adopted by the Supervisory Board of TRM, Info-Prim Neo reports. TRM owes about 22 million lei to Radiocomunicatii. Since the start of this year, it paid approximately 1 million lei for current services and will pay half a million lei more the next days, said the national public broadcaster's president Constantin Marin. The chairman of the Supervisory Board Eugen Rybka said that TRM does not have money to pay the historical debts as the company's budget for 2010 is about 55 million lei, 30 million lei of which was earmarked for salaries. At the start of 2010, TRM and IS Radiocomunicatii signed a contract under which the national public broadcaster was to pay 15 million lei for the services provided by the state-owned company. In order to solve the problem of debts, TRM offered to reduce the broadcast schedule of the television channel Moldova 1 by six hours in summer. But, according to the calculations of Radiocomunicatii, the costs incurred by the channel will decrease by only 200,000 lei. Radiocomunicatii director general Valeriu Elas said the company has earned no money from the services provided to TRM for several years, though it should make a profit of 35% a year. “We must not work at a loss. Despite the debts of millions of lei, we agreed to extend the TRM's network by four stations,” Valeriu Elas said, adding the forgiving of the debts is out of the question. Igor Munteanu, a member of the Supervisory Board, advised the administration of TRM to seek help from the National Agency for the Protection of Competition. “Unlike the private broadcasters, the public broadcaster must enjoy concessions. It is absurd to transfer the company's money coming from the budget to another state-run company for certain services,” Igor Munteanu said. “If the company's budget is not raised, it will be impossible to pay these debts. Radiocomunicatii may halt the broadcasting and Moldova 1 and Radio Moldova will thus disappear,” said Eugen Rybka. The work program of TRM for 2010 is now examined by the Broadcasting Coordination Council. Afterward, it will be studied by the parliamentary commission for culture, education, sport and mass media and discussed in Parliament.