“Ilan Shor’s team is bringing light to five more localities in Glodeni district,” it is announced in a press release published on the website of the Shor Party, which is still functional, although the Shor Party has been declared unconstitutional and is to be liquidated. Marina Tauber, vice-president of the unconstitutional party, said that “the lighting works in the Cuhnești Commune were launched at the initiative of the party’s president, Ilan Shor”. But the project boasted by Shor and his men was carried out with public money under the government’s “European Village” programme. ZdG previously wrote about the tender for the installation of public lighting in the commune of Cuhnești.

“Lighting the five villages was one of Ilan Shor’s promises”

“The residents of Cuhnești commune have waited 32 years for the most important infrastructure project for their locality. It is the lighting system, which they say will change their lives. Ilan Shor’s team has started work on 22 kilometres of cable and over 1,000 LEDs. It is one of the biggest projects in Glodeni district”, says the party’s press release, also published on some information portals (see here, here, here), but also on the Facebook pages of the leaders of the Shor Party.

The press release also says that “Ilan Shor’s representative in the northern part of the country, Irina Bogaciuc, also attended the project completion event”. Like Tauber, Bogaciuc also credited Ilan Shor for the implementation of the project, saying that “the lighting of the five villages was one of Ilan Shor’s promises”.

“We are very happy to be here today at the Cuhnești Town Hall. It was one of our promises and we are fulfilling it. It is an important day because people have waited a long time for this project and here is Ilan Shor’s team starting one of the biggest projects – lighting. We are happy that we can make people’s lives more pleasant, brighter and happier,” Irina Bogaciuc stressed, according to the statement of the Shor Party.

The project that Shor boasts about, financed by the government’s “European Village” programme

What is not mentioned in the communication of the Shor Party, declared unconstitutional, is the fact that the street lighting works in Cuhnești have no connection with Ilan Shor, they are financed under the “European Village” program, run by the government in several localities. The lighting project in the village of Cuhnești is one of hundreds of projects funded by the European Village programme. The only “merit” of “Ilan Shor’s team” is the fact that the town hall of Cuhnești is headed by a representative of the Shor Party – Mayor Angela Ceban.

The company offering the highest price has been selected

In the journalistic investigation “Business on public money: godson – district president, godfather – district councillor and businessman who wins million-dollar tenders in the district” published by ZdG in July this year, we also wrote about the Cuhnești project. I mentioned then that the company that obtained the right to carry out the street lighting installation works, “Gamureac Alexandru”, belongs to Alexandru Gamureac, godfather of the president of Glodeni district, Ion Cojocari.

The tender for the “installation of efficient street lighting system” was organized in 2022 and had a total value of 2.59 million lei, the project being financed from the government program “European Village”.

ZdG mentioned earlier that the bid of “Gamureac Alexandru” was designated the winner, even though the price proposed was the highest of all four bids submitted, more than one million lei higher than the lowest price bid proposed by “Zepto” SRL, a Chisinau-based company specializing in electrical and street lighting works. Zepto” SRL subsequently withdrew its bid, although it had lodged an objection.

Although, according to the information on a sign right in front of the Cuhnești Town Hall, the works were supposed to be completed on 1 July 2023, in mid-July, when ZdG was in Cuhnești, people in the village informed us that the street lighting was not yet operational.

Angela Ceban, mayor of Cuhnești, elected in 2019 on behalf of the “Șor” party, told us that Alexandru Gamureac’s company won the tenders in the village she leads because the other bids were “abnormally low”. “In the regulation on tenders there is a point that says you have to take the real prices, but where they were too low. According to our cost estimate, they were in no way in line with our specifications,” argues the mayor. She says she knows about the relations between the winning firm and the district president, but denied that she was influenced.

The National Fund for Regional and Local Development (FNDRL) is the main source of funding for regional and local development programmes. The fund finances projects such as water supply and sewerage, building insulation, increasing the attractiveness of tourism and developing economic infrastructure.

A budget of around 970 million lei has been allocated for regional and local development for 2022.