The works on the draft Chisinau municipal budget for 2017 were finalized and this is to be put to the vote in the near future. The announcement was made in the talk show “Moldova live” on the public TV channel Moldova 1, IPN reports.

Chisinau councilor on behalf of the Liberal Party Mihai Ceban said the voting of the budget was earlier impossible. “I agree that the municipal budget should have been adopted faster, but not everything is possible when the mayor and councilors want. The budget is drafted according to a particular procedure. The state budget was adopted and time was needed for adjusting this. In the February 2 meeting of the Chisinau Municipal Council, the draft municipal budget for 2017 was to be voted in the first reading, but the councilors didn’t manage to given that the agenda included seven issues. I think the draft municipal budget will be carried in the first reading next week,” stated the Liberal councilor.

Veaceslav Bulat, councilor of the European People’s Party of Moldova, confirmed that everything is ready for approving the municipal budget and expressed his indignation at the delay. “After the 2017 state budget law was adopted, four figures had to be adjusted. I don’t understand why they needed three weeks to adjust four figures,” he said.

Socialist councilor Dinari Cojocaru criticized the administration of the Chisinau City Hall for poor management of public finances in Chisinau. “The budget deficit in 2017 will be of 450 million lei. It is the consequence of poor management. We adopted a series of decisions that were to bring revenues into the municipal budget, such as the increase in taxes for gas stations and imposition of heavier fines for illegal tree felling. These decisions weren’t carried out,” he stated.