The reform of local public administration must have as its main objective the decentralization of power and the strengthening of local authorities’ autonomy, so that citizens can be actively involved in the decision-making process. The statement belongs to the former mayor of Floresti, Iurie Tap, and was made during the public debate “Consensus on the need for public administration reform, divergence on solutions”, organized by the IPN Press Agency.
“The objective of the reform should be the decentralization of power. The rule of law, by definition, is a decentralized state. The decentralization of the state requires the real involvement of citizens in the decision-making process. The state is strong when it shares its power with the citizens,” explained Iurie Tap.
The former mayor believes that one of the major issues of local public administration is the excessive influence of the political factor on the LPA’s activity. In his opinion, city halls should operate independently of political changes and should not be perceived as electoral instruments.
“It is necessary to remove local public administration from under political influence. The administrative system must be well established and must operate independently of the parties that rotate in the legislative forum. Why hasn’t this been achieved in the past? Because politics never wanted to give freedom to local authorities, seeing the LPAs as an electoral tool,” said the former mayor of Floresti.
Iurie Tap advocates for the creation of mechanisms that would allow city halls to generate and manage their own resources necessary for development, instead of relying on centralized programs and allocations.
“We should not give money to local authorities, neither through the European Village, nor through other programs, but we must provide them with the necessary tools for the town halls to implement and finance these programs themselves. We need to create strong local authorities, so people understand that they govern themselves, as they will choose their council and mayor, so they will live,” said Iurie Tap.
Disclaimer: This material was prepared by the IPN Press Agency, within the project “Local Public Administration Reform in Dialogue”, funded by the Ministry of Culture from the Media Subsidy Fund.
