Press release
STATEMENT BY DAAC-HERMES COMPANY
Having acquainted with the ECHR’s decision and the statement by the „Timpul” newspaper in the connection with the article, published in the above newspaper in January 2004 “Luxury in a Poor Country” the DAAC-HERMES declares the following.
In the above article the newspaper asserted that the company sold Skoda Octavia cars, which cost is 18.000 euros per vehicle, for overvalued price 25.000 euros per vehicle and the difference went to the pockets of the participants in this dealing and this money will be used for the election campaign of the Communists.
As a matter of fact, the price for analogous vehicles in the Skoda Automobile Center in 2003 constituted 16677 euros, but in the result of direct talks between the country’s leadership and the producer company the contract was concluded for 14690 euros per vehicle with an additional discount 231933 lei and the price constituted 14100 euros per vehicle (in accordance with the NBM rate of exchange at the moment of the purchase). It is said in Item 1 of the declaration and in section 3 of the Plaintiffs’ speech, which are included in the dossier. Copies of Annex 2 to the contract and transport invoices are placed on the site of the DAAC Hermes company www.daac.md in the section “Documents, Communiqués” Thus, the sum of the dealing was by 436 000 (four hundred six thousand) euros less than it is said in the above article and this sum, which went allegedly into the pockets of the participants in the dealing, does not exist at all.
The statement that at the moment of concluding the contract on the supply of cars Company President Vasile Chirtoaca was a member of the Economic Council by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova is not true, as well. As a matter of fact V. Chirtoaca was included into the composition of the Economic Council only in March 2004. One can make acquaintance with Governmental Resolution № 270 of March 17 2004 (МО № 50-52 of 26.03.2004) on the site www.daac.md.
This was the false information, disseminated by the newspaper, which was estimated by the DAAC-Hermes company as the information, spoiling its honor and dignity.
Proceeding from the text of the ECHR’s decision the DAAC-Hermes company must state that the decision of the High Court is based to a considerable extent on the following false data, which were obviously submitted to the court by the representative of the „Timpul”newspaper:
1. The ECHR’s decision mentions the overvalued price, whereas the cars were sold at an unprecedented discount.
2. The ECHR’s decision says that the DAAC Hermеs did not appeal against the newspaper’s assertion on the overvalued price for the cars, whereas the dossier of the case contains the Plaintiffs’ respective claims.
3. The ECHR’s decision says that the newspaper had grounds for recognizing the dealing as “suspicious”, as it was concluded with the participation of a member of the Economic Council by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, but at that moment V. Chirtoaca was not a member of the above council.
4. The ECHR’s decision says that the DAAC Hermes refused to submit the information about the dealing, whereas the company did not receive a respective request on the part of the newspaper and the publication became completely unexpected for the company’s administration.
This list of the false data is far from being complete, in this connection it is very regretful that that European Court of Human Rights (ЕСHR) was misinformed by the representative of the „Timpul” newspaper concerning the events touched upon in the article “Luxury in a Poor Country”, whereas the representative of the Government of the Republic of Moldova did not take due measures for submitting true information to the High Court.
More than 2000 people work in the DAAC-Hermes company and they believe in the positive future of our country and only this fact gives them strength to work, to expand their business and to create new jobs. We are sure of the need to control the spending of public financial resources, including on the part of mass media and are ready to help them in this by all means. We participate with our advertising budget in the financing of mass media of various orientations and support the freedom of expression, but in doing so we hope very much, when the watch-dogs of democracy (a quotation from the Timpul newspaper’s statement) disseminate various rumors, they will check thoroughly the authenticity of the cases they describe.
There are a lot of professional journalists in our country, but we see, how great is the effect of the society’s destruction and disintegration under the influence of the negative information, which is abundant in contemporary mass media and we would like to believe that more and more journalists will take this circumstance into consideration in their publications.
The Press Service of the DAAC-Hermes company
