The Chisinau authorities in February will start employing workers for cleaning the apartment buildings managed by the municipal enterprises administering the housing sector (70% of the municipality’s housing fund – e.n.). About 30% of such workers are needed at present, Info-Prim Neo reports. At the Chisinau City Hall’s meeting on January 21, Dionisie Boaghie, head of the Housing-Communal Division, said that the municipal enterprises administering the housing sector were asked to assess how many workers they need and to present the data to the local authorities. Boaghie said that it is not known exactly how many workers will be employed because the new block service taxes have not been levied yet. The incomes collected will be assessed in February. Since the start of this year, the residents of the blocks managed by the municipal enterprises administering the housing sector pay a block service tax of 1 leu, as opposed to the previous tax of 0.19 leu. The district heads have repeatedly warned the Chisinau administration of the acute shortage of sanitation workers. The head of Centru district Vladimir Sarban said recently that the population will not understand the local authorities if the number of workers that clean the areas around their apartment buildings remains the same after increasing the tax. He said that proposals should be submitted to the City Council for modifying the pay grades for sanitation personnel as the salaries paid at the moment do not look attractive to the potential employees. Mayor General Dorin Chirtoaca said that since the block service tax was approved, this is the task of the General Housing-Communal Division. He instructed the vice mayor responsible for this domain, Igor Lupulciuc, to draw up a work timetable for the municipal services and for the municipal enterprises administering the housing sector in compliance with the decision to raise the block service tax.