CHISINAU, April 4 The Moldovan authorities have not yet paid for the services of international auditors checking the debt of the Moldovagaz joint-stock company to Gazprom, Radio Moldova said Minister of Energy of the country Viktor Parlikov.
«
“The team is working, but we have an internal procedural difficulty with payment. The money was allocated in the previous budget year, until it was signed, until the budget execution of the previous year was exhausted. We will probably need a new government decision to pay this money. I can tell you that these companies have not yet been paid,” the head of the department said.
He noted that the Moldovan authorities «have no moral right» to rush the auditors, since Chisinau has not fulfilled its financial obligations even partially.
According to Parlikov, the results of the work could be ready by May.
Moldova is experiencing an energy crisis due to rising energy prices. In December last year, Chisinau returned to purchasing electricity from the Moldavskaya GRES (located in Transnistria), owned by the Russian company Inter RAO, with which it suspended commercial relations on November 1. Moldovagaz supplies Pridnestrovie with the required amount of blue fuel, and Moldova itself uses gas from accumulated reserves.
In Moldova, gas tariffs increased almost seven times in 2022, and for electricity almost four times .
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. «Gazprom» said that it reserves the right to completely stop gas supplies to Moldova if the country violates its payment obligations, as well as due to a gross violation of the deadlines for concluding an agreement on debt settlement.