The executive director of the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CALM) Viorel Furdui warns that the working group for the administrative reform proposes reducing the number of mayor’s offices ten times. For his part, the group’s chairman says the reduction in the number of mayor’s offices was just a proposal presented to mayors for debates and a final decision hasn’t been yet taken, IPN reports.

According to the CALM executive director, the working group for the reform of the local public administration recommends the liquidation of mayor’s offices in the country as the main strategy of the reform.

“The working group recommends diminishing the number of local public authorities, of mayor’s offices in particular, ten times. The task of this group was to unite all the stakeholders around an idea, not to come up with a decision that will have serious consequences,” Viorel Furdui stated in the talk show “Moldova Live” on the public TV channel Moldova 1.

For his part, Nicolae Eșanu, the head of the working group for the reform of the local public administration, noted a final decision hasn’t been yet reached and the group members are now just explaining the reform concept to society.

“The working group hasn’t adopted a decision that will define the reform scenario. We stated only an opinion. The excessive fragmentation of the local public authorities does not enable to provide high-quality services for the people. Furthermore, we haven’t yet made a clear delimitation between the local public administration and the central one. We have an exaggerated concentration of powers at the central level,” stated Nicolae Eșanu.

The working group for the reform of the local public administration was created on the initiative of ex-Premier Ion Chicu, who a year ago said the Republic of Moldova has the largest number of functionaries per capita in Europe and the number of these should be thus reduced. Nicolae Eșanu served as an adviser to Prime Minister Ion Chicu.