The Chisinau councilors of the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) warn about the lack of transparency in the intentions to take out a commercial loan of 200 million lei for purchasing buses from Belarus. They ask to exclude the draft decision on the purchase of buses from the extraordinary meeting of the Chisinau Municipal Council set for March 5. If this is not done, the PAS group on the CMC will leave the meeting in protest and will challenge the given decision by legal ways, if it is approved, IPN reports.
The councilors told a news conference that at the beginning of the CMC meeting last week, mayor Ion Ceban read a note by which he informed the Council about the intention to buy 100 MAZ buses from Belarus. After the meeting, the councilors received the set of documents and ascertained that 200 million lei is to be borrowed from a Moldovan private bank. The detailed analysis of the information presented by the mayor revealed a number of serious deviations from the norms.
Even if the Council’s secretary didn’t get the consent of the CMC Standing Bureau, he included this draft decision in the agenda of the March 5 meeting of the Council, without any appraisal of the expert commissions. “This way, the initiative wasn’t subject to any public consultation. Mayor Ceban aims to borrow 200 million lei, but he didn’t bother to inform the people about this,” said councilor Alexandr Trubca.
A package of documents for buying a consignment of 100 buses this year was presented by the Chisinau City Hall to the municipal councilors on February 27. According to Ion Ceban, the consignment is to be bought from a bus factory of Belarus. These have engines of German make, automatic gearbox, low ceiling, modern equipment and are the most competitive on the international market by price. A unit of transport costs about €120,000. If the buses are assembled in Chisinau, the price will be by 7-10% lower, plus the exemption from VAT.
