The Chisinau City Hall has sued the Cabinet and the Ministry of Finance. According to mayor Ion Ceban, they want these institutions to be obliged to pay the debt of over half a billion lei created in the municipal budget as a result of the delegation of additional powers to LPA Chisinau without financial coverage, IPN reports.

The mayor said that they requested to collect 158 million lei from the Cabinet and the Ministry of Finance for the benefit of the Chisinau City Hall to cover the monthly bonus of 1,300 lei for employees of budgetary authorities/institutions financed with money from the municipal budget for 2023, and also 158 million lei for 2024. Also, 210.8 million lei should be provided for maintaining the “Personal Assistants” service for 2024.

“Due to the central authorities’ badly-thought-out decisions and the defective planning of budgetary resources, the budget of the municipality of Chisinau was caused over half a billion lei damage. It is an enormous amount placed on the shoulders of the Chisinau City Hall. We ask the Cabinet and the Ministry of Finance to honor their obligations in accordance with the law. Out of the 23 billion lei annual contributions made by the residents of Chisinau to the state budget, only 2.8 billion (13% + TDS) return into to the Chisinau municipal budget,” stated Ion Ceban.

The municipality asks that at least 50% of those 23 billion lei should be left for the inhabitants of Chisinau municipality. According to the mayor, all policies will be thus implemented at the local level, including those placed on the shoulders of the local public administration. “We will cover all the way to the ECHR to make sure that our rights are respected,” said the mayor.