CHISINAU, September 3 The international audit company did not reveal a debt of 800 million dollars to Gazprom from Moldova, says President Maia Sandu, whose words are quoted by the Moldovan statements».
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«This is not yet known to the public, but next week our government will come out with a statement that we have hired an international company that has conducted an audit and has not revealed any debts to Gazprom» in the amount of about 800 million dollars. They wanted to deceive us in 2021,” the newspaper writes, referring to her speech at a meeting with residents of the Gagauz autonomy in the village of Kongaz.
In October 2021, Chisinau agreed with Gazprom to extend the contract for the supply of gas to the republic, subject to an audit of the Moldovagaz debt in 2022. audit with the Norwegian company Wikborg Rein Advokatfirma and the British Forensic Risk Alliance&Co. It was expected that the first results of the audit would become known in January-February, but the deadline for the audit was extended until April.
The Russian company warned that it reserves the right to completely stop gas supplies to Moldova due to a gross violation of the deadlines for concluding an agreement to settle the JSC's historical debt Moldovagaz.
Moldovan Energy Minister Victor Parlikov said in mid-July that the audit report on the debt to Gazprom was completed and would be sent to the Russian side along with a draft agreement on the regulation of historical debt in the amount of more than $720 million. At the same time, the head of the department noted that the results of the audit were «interesting» and would be made public after their thorough analysis.
Moldavia has a state of emergency, declared, among other things, due to the energy crisis amid a shortage of gas and a sharp rise in the cost of energy resources. Since December last year, Moldovagaz has been receiving gas from two sources — from the state-owned Energocom and Gazprom. Russian gas is sent to Transnistria, while the rest of Moldova uses fuel from accumulated reserves (more than 200 million cubic meters). Tariffs for gas in the republic increased almost seven times in 2022, and for electricity almost four times.