We built, built, and finally built…”Shelter for dogs” in dry statistics and contracts
The history of the animal shelter begins with the 2015 promises within the campaign for the mayor of Balti. With the first salary received back on August 7, 2015, Mayor Renato Usatii says that he will spend it on the design and estimate documentation necessary for the construction of the Balti animal shelter:

Most likely, the allocated amount of 4 534 lei and 39 bani was not enough for the development of events on the construction of the shelter, and the next steps for its construction were taken almost two years later. February 15, 2017 acting mayor of Balti Igor Sheremet makes a request to the Renato Usatii Foundation to allocate 130,000 lei for the project of the Balti shelter:

Exactly two days later, on February 17, 2017 at 08:21 p.m., the Balti mayor Renato Usatii, who was at that time on business trips- hospitalized in the Moscow region, goes live through social networks, where he says that he will pay for the design work on an animal shelter. Thus, we see a chain – on February 15, 2017, Igor Sheremet makes a request for the allocation of money for a project in the name of the Renato Usatii Foundation, and on February 17, Renato Usatii personally reports on the issue of money.
Further, on March 1, 2017, an Agreement is being signed for the development of design and estimate documentation between the Renato Usatii Foundation represented by Elena Gritsko and the municipal enterprise Architectural and Planning Bureau in the amount of 130,000 lei. There is practically no specifics in the contract on external engineering networks, but there is also the development of a connection to the sewage system:


And here is the estimated part dedicated to the financial assessment of the work on the shelter, commissioned by the Renato Usatii Foundation, the Architectural and Planning Bureau:




The executor of the project documentation at that time was the municipal councilor from Partidul Nostru, the architect Tatiana Veselovskaia. The customer is Elena Gritsko, municipal councilor from Partidul Nostru, representing the Renato Usatii Foundation and the Supplier is Tatiana Veselovskaia, municipal councilor from Partidul Nostru, representing the municipal enterprise Architectural and Planning Bureau.
As you can see, we want to focus on the point for designing a connection to the sewer. We will return to this point later in our material.
Based on the design and estimate documentation of the mayoralty of Balti has announced a tender to determine which company will build the shelter. In 2018, such a company was identified, it became SRL MARSHARCON – a Balti company under the management of the municipal councilor Boris Markoci. The original contract Nr. 29 between SRL MARSHARCON and the City Hall was for 6,248,049 lei, which the company of the Balti entrepreneur was to receive in several installments in 2018 and 2019:


In the following months, this contract Nr 29 was revised three times in the direction of decreasing the amount. The last amendment to the Contract Nr. 29 on the revision of the cost of work was on October 31, 2019:

The amount of Contract Nr. 29 decreased from 6,248,049 lei to 5,690,577 lei, that is, by 557,472 lei. It would seem that the indicators are more than favorable, however, a new contact is connected with the Balti shelter, outside of tenders, in the amount of 931 838 lei. All this is indicated in the Contract Nr. 130, signed by SRL MARSHARCON in the person of the Balti businessman Boris Markoci and Balti mayoralty:


Thus, if earlier it seemed that the Balti City Hall made significant savings, if we analyze only the first contract, then on the basis of the two contracts it becomes clear that the initial cost of the project’s construction increased from 6,248,049 lei to 6,622,415 lei.
Expenses of the Public Institution “Shelter Center for homeless animals Balti muniipalty “
In 2019, the Balti shelter was launched in the second half of the year. For six months of operation, the shelter is allocated from the budget of the Balti City Hall 1 700 000 lei. They were spent as follows:
- • Payment for electricity – 20,000 lei;
- • Internet – 0 lei;
- • Security of the company – 0 lei;
- • Payment for sewerage and water supply services – 20,000 lei;
- • Garbage removal – 19,992 lei;
- • Purchase of medicines and medical equipment – 172,608 lei;
- • Purchase of animal feed – 148,978 lei.
In 2020, 1,950,000 lei were received. The distribution of money through September 2020 was as follows:
- • Payment for electricity – 40,000 lei;
- • Internet – 3087 lei;
- • Security of the company – 0 lei;
- • Payment for sewerage and water supply services – 16 780 lei;
- • Garbage removal – 6054 lei;
- • Purchase of medicines and medical equipment – 32 791 lei;
- • Purchase of animal feed – 200,000 lei.


The average daily ration for one dog is estimated by the director of the shelter Vitali Savciuk at 2.1 lei.
EXPERT RESPONSES
We turned for a comment to a member of the administration board of the shelter, Tatiana Berezkina, who enjoys a well-deserved reputation among the Balti dog breeders. As a question, we asked about the possibility of normal nutrition for a dog for 2.1 lei per day. To which T. Berezkina replied that at the moment there are 30 dogs in her private kennel. A month she buys 50 kg of pearl barley for 320 lei, 60 kg of bones for 420 lei, two bags of the cheapest feed for 600 lei, four bags of bread crumbs for 280 lei. With such a modest budget, it comes out about 1.8 lei per day per dog, and all food is practically without meat.
Seeing in the report of the director of the shelter Vitali Savciuk a line about sewerage services, we turned to the company “Glorin Inginering”, which is a monopolist in Balti in this type of activity. As we were told, the Balti shelter is not connected to the central sewerage system and is not on the balance sheet of Glorin Inginering. During its construction, instead of connecting to the central sewerage, which was in the design and estimate documentation, the sewerage was built of a local type, a pit. And for the entire existence of the Balti shelter, machines for pumping out cesspools have never been called to its territory, as noted in the company “Glorin Inginering”. This is at a more than serious expense of 3500 lei per month for the purchase of water. This is about 150 tons of cold water per month.
Outcome
The project initially included a connection to the central sewerage system. But despite the increase in the cost of the project, there is no central sewage system in the shelter. Given that the shelter buys 1800 tons of cold water per year. Where does this water go?
Is it possible to feed a dog normally for 2.1 lei per day? Tatiana Berezkina, a member of the shelter’s administration, admits that the diet of 1.8 lei per day is more than a modest food for dogs, where there is practically no meat.

Авторы:
Diana Grosu
Vitali Cozearschi