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Massive frauds under protection of stockholders, state institutions admitted at Moldovagaz enterprise, experts says

13:28 | 25.09.2019 Category: Economic

Chisinau, 25 September /MOLDPRES/ - The deficient management of the Moldovagaz stock company in the last 20 years has led to a groundless increase in expenses and embezzlement of the enterprise’s heritage; a part of the spending was included in the gas tariffs and another part led to the increase in the company’s debts, according to a study carried out by experts of the WatchDog.MD community, Sergiu Tofilat and Tudor Soitu.    

The study’s authors said that all infringements discovered following controls by the Court of Accounts (CCRM) or the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) had not resulted in the sanctioning of persons from the company’s administration.   

The gas consumers paid an extra of about 1.5 billion lei as a result of an illegal assessment from 2009 and increase in the amortization costs. In 2009, Moldovagaz increased the value of the heritage by 4.2 billion lei through the re-evaluation of the fixed means; thus, the amortization costs included in the tariff grew by 150 million lei annually starting from September 2009, experts said.

Most re-evaluated assets “were completely worn out and the general assembly of stockholders did not accept the findings of the re-evaluation.” The authors noted that, in 2009, a joint action by political decision-makers, leadership of ANRE and Moldovagaz had taken place, in order to embezzle the consumers through   legislation’s amendment and including unjustified costs on the wearing out of assets in the tariff.  

The consumers “pay in an unjustified way more than four million dollars annually,” because of too high gas losses in distribution pipelines. The study’s authors also said that the gas losses accounted for 3.4 per cent and had not changed since 2011, although Moldovagaz invested more than 500 million lei in the gas distribution pipelines. For comparison, the gas losses in distribution are of 0.5-0.6 per cent in the EU countries and of 1.5-2 per cent in the Balkan states.   

Experts said that it was necessary to verify the 1.7-billion-lei investments made by Moldovagaz. According to them, in 2011, ANRE found out frauds worth 243.5 million lei at the construction of the gas pipelines Razdelnaya-Izmail, Tocuz-Cainari-Mereni, at the procurement of meters, tubes and accessories, transport means. The acquisitions were made through offshore firms or through companies of the relatives close to the Moldovagaz management. Although ANRE excluded unjustified expenses from the tariff and submitted materials to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the frauds actually remained non-investigated.   

At the same time, Moldovagaz might buy currency at a higher exchange rate than the average exchange rate provided by banks. Experts noted that the procurements of currency must also be verified, making reference to statements by prosecutors who made searches at the gas provider in 2015 and 2016.

Moldovagaz annually misses about 22 per cent of the transit incomes because of abusive provisions contained in the contract on gas transit, the study also reads.

Experts recommend the carrying out of an audit at Moldovagaz and all its subdivisions since the moment of its foundation, in order to establish the justified costs, determine the value of frauds and the real value of the tariff deviations, which are to be excluded from tariff. According to the authors, the audit team should analyze the bank turnover, contracts on procurement of assets and services, as well as the data on providers, in order to find out where the illicit incomes were transferred. Also, experts said that decision-makers must verify the debt for gas, payments made and the way the debt was distributed between the right bank of Dniester and the Transnistrian region.    

 

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