The facelift of the Eugen Doga pedestrian walkway in the centre of the capital, which in recent days has sparked several criticisms in society, is being renovated without a public tender and the amount allocated from the municipal budget is unknown. ZdG found that in December 2022, the Râșcani district Pretura organised a procurement procedure for the rehabilitation of the street, but it was cancelled after “serious deviations from legal provisions” were found.

More specifically, the object of the procurement was “the renovation of the pedestrian street Eugen Doga, the portion between Columna and Constantin Tănase streets, located in the urban area of Chisinau municipality, Eugen Doga street”. The estimated value was about 1 992 000 lei, according to information published on the State Register of Public Procurement “MTender”.

ZdG also established that on December 30, 2022, the Praetor of Riscani district, Vlad Melnic, signed a provision increasing by 900 000 lei the related expenses for the renovation of the pedestrian area. At the beginning of 2023, 2 400 000 lei were allocated for the project in the Public Procurement Plan.

ZdG contacted City Hall spokesman Vasile Chirilescu, but he said that the City Hall can answer questions about the contract under which the work is taking place.

Asked by ZdG, Mihai Furculiță, the interim secretary of the Râșcani Pretura, said that after the first tender was cancelled, the institution would no longer be involved in the project. According to him, the works on the pedestrian street are taking place under a “trilateral contract between TIKA (Turkish Cooperation Agency, editor’s note), the contractor and the City Hall”. He refused to give the name of the economic agent.

“It is money paid by TIKA. We don’t know the amount of the contract because it was not done by us. TIKA, Chisinau City Hall and the contractor. We did not participate in the procedure of changing the pavement. It is a trilateral contract.

Reporter: Who is the economic agent? I don’t have the exact information. We know the name, but I can’t tell you because the beneficiary is the City Hall. We didn’t even have the contract (…) No contract was concluded then. Due to lack of funds the street repair was abandoned.

Reporter: On the basis of what are these works taking place? On the basis of a project. The contract is trilateral, the project is for execution, unilateral, drawn up by the City Council. There is a trilateral contract between TIKA, the contractor and the City (…),” he said.

ZdG checked the information posted on the Transparency Portal of the Chisinau City Hall and found that no data on the “trilateral contract” is available.

By the time this article was published, Natalia Ixari, spokeswoman for the capital’s mayor, had not responded to ZdG’s calls and messages.

Minister of Culture: “None of the projects currently being carried out in the centre of the capital has the approval of the CNMI”

Sergiu Prodan, Minister of Culture, has called on the capital’s mayor to “put creativity on hold and focus on the city’s public infrastructure problems”. The minister claims that none of the projects currently being carried out in the centre of the capital has the approval of the National Council of Historical Monuments (CNMI) and that “the permits issued by the City Hall are illegal”.

“I understand very well that not everyone had LEGOs and Puzzles as a child, and unrealized fantasies at that stage sometimes follow you all your life. But still, I recommend the Mayor to stop! Apart from the exquisite taste he shows, all the work carried out with such haiducean bravado in the historic centre of Chisinau is illegal.

The law imposes a mandatory approval by the National Council of Historical Monuments of any intervention project in the Historic Centre. None of the projects currently being carried out in the centre of the capital have the approval of the CNMI, and the permits issued by the City Hall are illegal. Both on the street “31 August 1989” and on the pedestrian street “Eugen Doga” or anywhere in the Historic Centre. It’s not just disregard of the law, it’s defiance of the law!

Not to mention respect for intellectual property rights. The “Tree of Life” symbol is a registered trademark and belongs to DGA Invest Moldova. Of course, the City Hall does not have Invest Moldova’s permission to use this symbol on the pavement. The saddest thing is that all these “improvisations” are made at the expense of the citizens of the city or from loans, which the citizens will have to pay. And the grants offered by the partners are for the development of the city, not for artistic gimmicks.

I ask the mayor to put creativity on hold and focus on the public infrastructure problems of the municipality (…)”, said Sergiu Prodan on his Facebook page.

Ion Ceban: “We are glad to be able to attract so much attention by promoting the country brand – The Tree of Life”

For his part, Mayor Ion Ceban came up with a reaction “for those who are annoyed and criticize the projects carried out in Chisinau”.

“(…) We are happy to be able to attract so much attention by promoting the country brand – Tree of Life, right in the heart of the capital. This place will attract many visitors to the capital of Moldova. This symbol is of the nation and is for the city and all people. It connects two other symbols, the Eugen Doga pedestrian walkway and the piano keyboard with the traditional cobbled carpet on the alley in bd. Grigore Vieru. The creation of the Tree of Life is part of the Eugen Doga Pedestrian Street Modernization Project that Chisinau City Hall is carrying out together with the Turkish Cooperation Agency TIKA,” Ceban said.

The first announcement about the rehabilitation of the pedestrian street was made by Ion Ceban in early May 2023.