The Public Property Agency (PPA) and the Chisinau International Airport will organize a new tender for commercial premises at the airport formerly controlled by Ilan Shor, as only two companies submitted bids.
“We are talking about the companies LeBridge and Lagardere, which do not provide sufficient competition,” Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Andrei Spinu wrote on social media.
According to the official, “preliminary data show that this process has been sabotaged, including from within.”
“Today (19 February), at 15:00, the deadline for submitting bids to participate in the auction for commercial spaces at the Chisinau airport expired. We had several discussions with the Public Property Agency regarding the procedure of organizing the auction and the applicants. Only two companies applied – LeBridge and Lagardere, which does not ensure sufficient competition.
Preliminary findings indicate that the process has been sabotaged, including from within, and we are obliged to cancel the auction and start a new procedure with more stringent conditions. Shore’s goal was to continue to extract money from airport premises and block a fair auction.
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In this regard, we agreed that tomorrow, Tuesday, the Public Property Agency will announce the schedule for the new auction to ensure the widest participation of companies in this area and compliance with all the requirements for the correct organization of the process,” Spinu wrote.
Chisinau International Airport and the Public Property Agency (PPA) have put up for auction the premises where duty-free stores controlled by fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor used to be located.
The public space spread information that the company Lagardere Travel Retail will win the tender announced by the airport and PPA. The press writes that this company was involved in a corruption scandal at a similar tender at the Romanian Otopeni airport. The National Anti-Corruption Directorate of the neighboring country opened a criminal case.
Recently, MP Radu Marian denied these rumors and said in the program Rezoomat on RLIVE TV that the airport needs serious companies, not companies like those in Khabarovsk.
Shortly afterward, the interim head of Chisinau International Airport, Constantin Vozian, announced his resignation, while PPA director Roman Cojuhar said that the information spread was false, the attack having allegedly been paid for by Ilan Shor.