Former leadership of information, security service must answer for departure of seven Turkish teachers from Moldova, says PM

Chisinau, 04 September /MOLDPRES/ – At the beginning of the Government meeting, on Wednesday, 04 September, Prime Minister, Maia Sandu, has said that on 06 September, it will be one year since it took place the abusive departure of seven Turkish teachers from the territory of Moldova. In the context, the PM has said that there is evidence that the abusive decisions were taken by ex – director of the Information and Security Service (SIS), Vasile Botnari, and by ex – deputy director of SIS, Alexandru Baltaga, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.

Thus, Maia Sandu has asked the prosecutors from the Chisinau City Prosecutor's Office (PC) to investigate this case with all seriousness and not to delay the trial: "There are some suspicions that the prosecutors are not interested enough there to investigate this case very seriously. I also appeal to the Prosecutor of Chisinau city, but also to the General Prosecutor, to ensure that this case is investigated with the utmost seriousness and at the right time to inform the company, to be given more details about this abuse and, respectively, those involved are to be sanctioned”.

Also, the Premier has said that there are companies that go to court to be exempted from paying the loans to 03 banks which were involved in bank theft. "These companies have the guts to say that, because these banks were involved in thefts, they should no longer repay the money they borrowed many years ago. Now it seems that there are economic agents which believe that if the citizens took over the burden of this bank theft anyway, these companies should not return their debts. This is wrong and I hope that the courts will make the decisions according to the law and they will not allow them to be involved in other thefts and abusive decisions”, mentioned Maia Sandu.

Also, the Prime Minister has asked for explanations from the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment (MADRM) regarding the investigation of the situation at the treatment plant at Apa Canal Chisinau (ACC), which for several days causes an awful smell in Chisinau municipality.

The field officials have stated that it was formed a working group that is investigating this case and it has been shown that several producers do not comply with the environmental legislation and have not installed their own pre – treatment stations. Thus, the wastewater treatment plant from ACC is overloaded and it does not cope with the quantities of waste water that reach there. Also, in this case, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Andrei Nastase, has ordered to carry out the unannounced controls at the responsible public institutions and private companies to verify the extent to which they comply with the legislation, and as a result, the Prosecutor's Office has already initiated criminal cases for several companies.

"It has happened for years, the economic agents know that there is a law, it does not comply, there are no state institutions to hold them accountable, impose them. All the city, all inhabitants must suffer because there are certain institutions that do not do their job and they are totally irresponsible economic agents and do not obey the law. If these economic agents were sanctioned very hard a few years ago, then they changed their attitude, they bought their sewage treatment stations, so this was not the case. The sanctions must be very harsh,” said Maia Sandu.

Also, the PM has asked from the Minister of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment, Georgeta Mincu, to identify ways to start a lending line for producers that do not have sufficient resources to take loans from state to obtain their loans and install their own sewage treatment stations.

The State Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and the Environment, Iuliana Cantaragiu, has stated that the legislation allows the suspension of activity of economic agent that has caused considerable damage to environment, until it remedies the issue.