The Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CALM) requests to set free the mayor of Basarabeasca Valentin Cimpoies, who was arrested on charges of professional negligence on March 17. The mayor is accused of not taking measures to prevent and end a case of sexual exploitation of a minor girl by her father. The CALM members are indignant at the actions of the law enforcement bodies, which they consider unjustified and abusive. They said the mayor shouldn’t have been arrested because he posed no social threat and this has no criminal record.
In a news conference at IPN, CALM executive director Viorel Furdui said the actions of the judicial bodies that resulted in the arrest of the mayor of Basarabeasca represent the consequences of excessive administrative control over the local public authorities on the part of the state bodies and of systemic neglect of the principles of local self-government. Different regulations, obligations and responsibilities are imposed on the local authorities without financial coverage and wrought the necessary application instruments.
“We remind that under the Law on Administrative Decentralization, the local public authorities of the first level do not have own social assistance and protection powers. They do not possess resources and effective instruments for dealing with such cases. In particular, they do not have the necessary financing, while the social workers and the police are not in the mayor’s subordination. Consequently, the mayor in this case couldn’t have been accused of negligence,” stated the CALM executive director.
According to Viorel Furdui, the legal provisions concerning abuse of power, misuse of power and negligence in the current political context represent an instrument for exerting pressure on public servants and functionaries of the central and local public administration. Therefore, the CALM reserves the right to mount peaceful protests if the pressure on the part of control bodies continues, while the mayors and other local authorities are humiliated and disregarded.
President of the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova Tatiana Badan, mayor of Selemet village, said the local public authorities face a lot of problems owing to shortage of funds. The local authorities want a law that would provide immunity to mayors, similar to the parliamentary immunity, or the mayors could vacate their posts as a result of intimidation actions.
