The Moldovan authorities are deliberately dragging out the distribution of a credit intended for financing projects in the farm sector because they have no idea who should manage the 100-million-euro credit provided by the Government of Poland”, maintains National Farmers Federation Chairman Valeriu Cosarciuc, a former Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry.

He told a news conference at Infotag today that Government has approved a decision on the program of using the credit, but it has not yet been published in the Monitorul Oficial governmental bulletin and, hence, has not come into force.

“When the decision is published, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry will be supposed to present regulations on using the financial means. But as always, endless debates about who should be closer to the money would not let the problem be resolved. Each relevant agency is struggling for the right to be the only money coordinator. As a result, farmers would not see the money”, said Valeriu Cosarciuc.

According to him, there are two regulations on governing the credit program.

“One of the regulations reads that the program shall be implemented by the Agency for Interventions and Payments in Agriculture (AIPA), while the other says that a new body must be created for managing not solely projects but money for them”, said Cosarciuc.

But the most interesting thing is that the latter regulations stipulate the formation of an Administrative Board.

“For the first time ever, such kind of a draft document says the Board chairperson is appointed for the whole period of the project, and if the person is dismissed from his state post, he will all the same remain the Board chair. In plainer words, somebody is already preparing a cozy, warm post for himself. I know a whole number of state officials who boast of being real breadwinners for the Moldovan state. But as soon as foreign money comes to the country, they set up all kinds of councils, commissions, boards etc. for governing the money, and these structures little by little become their family businesses, or personal money mills”, said Valeriu Cosarciuc, certainly not mentioning names.

In his opinion, a minimum sum for financing a project should be 500,000 euros, and a maximum one – a million euros.

“In such conditions, a question appears about what the real purpose of this program is – to root out poverty and provide financing to small farmers on preferential terms, or to channel money to those who already have it?” wondered Valeriu Cosarciuc.

He stressed that both regulations have been kept in secrecy, and that “this is a fight under the blanket between those who seek to persuade the governing coalition that his variant is the best”.

Valeriu Cosarciuc maintains that farmers are getting increasingly angry about the endless red tape. They are demanding that the Government’s decision and the regulations be published and the money be distributed possibly sooner.

Infotag’s dossier: According to the credit agreement signed in May 2014, the Government of Poland shall provide for Moldova a 100-million-euro credit payable in 25 years against the interest rate of 0.15% p.a., with a 5-year grace period in payments. The financial means are intended for funding projects aimed at modernization of Moldova’s agricultural sector and its restructuring, particularly of farms specializing in the production of dairy products, meat and other competitive agricultural products.