Economics

MOLDOVAN GOVERNMENT CANCELS PREVIOUS AUTHORITIES’ DECISION ON CONCESSION OF CHISINAU AIRPORT

05 september, 2019

On Wednesday, the Moldovan Government has cancelled the decisions taken in 2012-2013 on passing the Chisinau International Airport into a concession to foreign investors.

There were 4 such decisions taken then namely on initiating a project of private-public partnership for passing the airport into the said concession; on approval of the concession of the enterprise’s assets and transfer terms; on approving the results of a closed contest and on passing assets into concession.

Minister of Justice Olesea Stamati stated at the government meeting today that those decisions were taken contrary to a law-stipulated procedure because in September 2013 the Constitutional Court suspended the governmental Resolutions on passing the Airport assets into concession and on the organization of an open commercial contest.

According to Prime Minister Maya Sandu, the today’s decision is connected with the would-be steps the Government is preparing to make to invalidate and break up the concession contract by applying to court instances, “but until the court has taken a final judgment, the current concession contract shall continue working”.

Infotag’s dossier: In 2013, the Government of Premier Iurie Leanca decided to pass the state-owned enterprise “Chisinau International Airport” into a 49-year-long concession to Avia Invest Company of Russia, founded by two Russian companies, “The Airport of Khabarovsk” and “Kolomna Plant”, who jointly won the concession contest in that year and created the Avia Invest specially to run the concession.

According to the concession agreement signed shortly after, the foreign concessionaire is supposed to invest not less than 244.2 million euros in airport development, and the size of rent must be not less than 1% of sale revenues.

In subsequent years, Avia Invest changed its owners three times. Among them was e.g. an offshore company said to be related to scandalous Moldovan business tycoon and politician Ilan Shor – a prominent figure mentioned in the Kroll Agency’s Report on the one-billion-dollar bank fraud disclosed in Moldova.

On August 29, 2019 the NR Investments Ltd. Company of Nathaniel Rothschild announced the completion of its purchasing the Cyprus offshore company of Komaksavia Avia Invest Ltd, which owns 95% of Avia Invest shares.

Yet in May 2015, then-Prime Minister Chiril Gaburici demanded from the National Anti-Corruption Center (NACC) and the Ministry of the Interior to start an investigation into the passing of the Chisinau airport into concession in 2013. In his belief, the Government of Iurie Leanca was misled concerning the terms of the concession, “whose consequences have inflicted a particularly grave damage to the Moldovan State”.

Opponents to the concession agreement have many a time challenged it in courts. On their initiatives, commissions were formed to check the legitimacy of governmental decisions, but none of such commissions had found violations at decision taking or in meeting concession commitments by the Russian concessionaire.

And in 2019, President Igor Dodon and Prime Minister Maya Sandu stated repeatedly they would seek cancellation of the airport concession contract by all means.

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