7 persons, including Chișinău vice-mayor, arrested in corruption case regarding capital’s parking system

On April 25th, seven persons have been arrested by the Anti-Corruption Center of Moldova and anti-corruption prosecutors in a corruption case regarding an apparently simulated public listing for the paid parking lots in Chișinău.

CNA Moldova

The arrested persons are: vice-mayor Nistor Grozavu, head of the transportation and communication ways department Igor Gamrețchi, a former Liberal-Democrat city counselor,  the managers of three parking companies and the millionaire Alexandru Pincevski. The latter is suspected of secretly managing several companies that submitted their offer to the public listing, including the one that won.

According to the prosecutors, the official listing announced in July 2015 had unreasonably high requirements, like having the experience of minimum 6 million parking transactions in the last three years and having the proof of providing electronic parking services in more than 5 cities in the last 2 years. Thus, out of the 16 interested companies, only two applied for participation- non-resident EME PARKLEITSYSTEM GmbH and resident Sizif-L SRL, that was disqualified due to lack of all documents.

After the vice-mayor Nistor Grozavu signed the contract with the winning EME, the anti-corruption officers started a penal case on the abuse of power, since Grozavu did not have the approval of the City Council.

The prosecutors found that the representatives of the Chișinău administration had contacts with Pincevski, manager of several parking companies and off-shores through proxies. Thus, the public listing might have been simulated in favor of the winning company.

Grozavu leaving today his office with the anti-corruption officers:MoldovaNews

 
The 7 persons were arrested for 72 hours for abuse of power and corruption. If found guilty, they might be imprisoned for up to 10 years with the ban of having a public position for 10-15 years. The current head of the Moldovan Railways, Iurie Topală, was also questioned on Tuesday evening at the Anti-Corruption Center of Moldova. Topală is a suspect so far.
 
Moldova.org
25 April 2017
 

Disclaimer: All views, opinions and accounts included in the RAI News Section are those of the authors; their inclusion does not imply official endorsement or acceptance by RAI. The News Section reflects the selection of topics of informative value to the organization and its stakeholders. Its content is taken from press/media sources and does not in any way reflect official RAI Secretariat policy. RAI Secretariat is not responsible for possible inaccuracies in media reports.