The ponds in many districts of Moldova are leased out illegally, the local authorities diminish the rent, while some of the lessees do not pay it at all so that the debts amounted to about 1 million lei. The violations have been identified recently by the Prosecutor General's Office (PG), after checking how the legislation on the management of ponds is observed, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the PG's press service. According to the PG, the most vulnerable area is the management of the public ponds of the territorial-administrative units. Under the legislation, the public property of the village (commune), city (municipality) and district is managed by the local not district council, but in many settlements the ponds were leased our by order of mayors. It was established that a large number of ponds have been rented out without holding public auctions. Such cases were discovered in the districts of Edinet, Falesti, Anenii Noi, Calarasi, Ciadar-Lunga, Cimislia, Criuleni, Drochia, Falesti, Orhei, Glodeni, Straseni, Rezina, Soldanesti, Causeni, and Rascani. Another negative aspect identified is the lack of transparency in holding auctions by the local public administration. The law on the protection of competition is violated as it says that the economic entities have the right to free competition. An illegal method of using the water stock tolerated by public functionaries is the management of ponds in the absence of decisions made by local councils and of leases. A major problem identified by the prosecutors of Ungheni, Soroca, Soldanesti and other districts is the extraction of mineral resources in water protection areas. Thus, the Prosecutor's Office of Criuleni district closed a company that was extracting illegally sand and gravel from the Nistru. The Prosecutor General's Office informed the Government about the discovered irregularities. The prosecutors sued the economic entities in debt to collect overdue payments of about 1 million lei.