Public Property Agency of Moldova unveils findings on Chisinau Arena

Chisinau, 12 September /MOLDPRES/ - The Public Property Agency (APP) today presented findings on the construction of the Chisinau Arena.  

According to the APP director general, Eugeniu Moraru, the Arena will have a capacity of 3,800 places and will be meant, in particular, for hosting sports competitions. The Arena will also comprise more pools, tennis grounds, an aqua centre, commercial spaces and spaces for public nourishment services, parking places. The overall cost of the project is 43 million euros and the building will be placed on a ground of ten hectares.

The adviser of the office of the economics minister, Ion Potlog, said that a technical expertise of the project had been carried out, in order to establish the stage of Arena’s construction. “We found out that the processes dealing with the project’s planning, defining the objects and budgeting have not been included all of them in the project. Thus, we attest that the project’s cost tends to deviate much from what was established; subsequently, we will see how much,” Potlog noted. He also said that more infringements had been admitted in the process of tenders. At the same time, the infrastructure of Arena’s connection to public utilities was not planned and budgeted and the designing and carrying out of the ways of access to the Arena has not even been initiated.    

„So, till present, we have a ground switched from the public to the private sector. It means that, if the state fails to fulfill its financial obligations, this ground can be divided into small plots of land and privatized. We have a building which we hope that will be soon opened for use, but which is practically not connected to the communication networks. Neither a number of staff members have been thought out for the management of this Arena. The Arena’s exploitation cannot bring a sufficient income for paying the debts to the constructions company,” the APP director said.   

In late last August, the file of the project’s assessment was submitted to the Prosecutor General’s Office and Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, which are to give their opinions on the correctness of the actions undertaken in the process of planning, bidding, negotiation and signing of the contract on construction.    

The construction of the Chisinau Arena started in last autumn. At that time, decision-makers gave assurances that the works would be completed in a 12-month period. In early July 2019, Prime Minister Maia Sandu demanded the carrying out of a technical and financial revision of the project on Arena’s construction, as there would be suspicions concerning eventual irregularities. Subsequently, President Igor Dodon informed that a special commission would check the implementation of the construction project.