Slusari: Arena Chisinau Is a Waste of Public Money Started by Plahotniuc

The former vice-president of the Parliament criticized the PAS party, which “couldn’t overcome the syndrome of the former owner” and opened the “National arena” on December 24. He noted that instead of the 10 hectares required for the construction of the complex, 69 hectares of agricultural land were taken from Stavceni, while the village did not receive a penny for excluding the land from agricultural turnover. At the same time, 59 hectares had nothing to do with the construction of Arena, there Plahotniuc planned to create a district with casinos and brothels, reports enews.md. According to Slusari, the project was initiated on the basis of a feasibility study hastily developed by an NGO with no experience in the field, and the tender was initially arranged for one participant. “Soon the contract value of 43 million euros began to rise. Oh, I forgot about the sewer. Plus 1.5 million euros. Oops, the contract did not include funding for access roads. Another 24 million lei. Interestingly, at the moment there is only one access road and because of this, the facility until today, officially cannot be put into operation, despite the fact that the first concert was held on December 24. For the second road, there is a long procedure to buy the private land with the buildings. At the same time, since 2020, the state has spent from 10 to 15 million lei annually for the maintenance of the unfinished facility, which does not bring income,” – he said. At the same time, in parallel, there is a process in court related to the return of VAT on investments, where the company-investor demands, and probably will win, from the state 92 million lei. All this time, all 69 hectares are in pledge and can even be re-pledged. There is a significant risk that at any moment, the Turkish company will exercise its right and the state will be left without land. According to Slusari, if something like this happened in private business, those who allowed this fraud would have been prosecuted long ago. “And we’re quiet. The prosecution is marinating in the deepest basement of the criminal case on this project, which began in 2019. I have not heard that Plahotniuc, or Candu, who actively promoted the law in Parliament, or Dodon, who promulgated this law that left the commune of Stavceni without 59 hectares and monetary compensation, have status in this case. I do not know whether those who signed the financing agreement and all the additional documents were even summoned to the prosecutor’s office. I mean Gaburici, Babuk and Armasu,” – he stressed.