Voluntary amalgamation and the possibility of creating intercommunity development associations are tools that the Government makes available to local public authorities to increase their own revenues, Diana Chiriac, adviser to Prime Minister Dorin Recean on Local Public Administration, stated in a debate hosted by IPN News Agency. According to the Government’s representative, for greater efficiency, the state decided to increase the salaries of mayors, deputy mayors and secretaries of councils from January 1, 2024 and the pays of other categories of officials of mayor’s offices will also be increased soon.
The Premier’s adviser on Local Public Administration said that the state encourages the LPAs to develop their localities, thus increasing their own revenues. The Government is looking for solutions to increase the salaries of all employees of mayor’s offices so as to keep them inside the system.
“At central level, tools have been identified for the local public authorities to strengthen their capacities, increasing their own revenues. From January 1, the salaries are higher for three categories of staff of mayor’s offices - mayor, deputy mayor, secretary of the council. These three categories haven’t benefited from salary increases for over 10 years. Identifying solutions for increasing the salaries of other categories of people working for local public authorities is the next stage. This week, Parliament is to consider the legislative initiative regarding the raising of pays of other categories, which was proposed by members of the commission for public administration. These are the tax collector, cadastral engineer, and accountant,” said Diana Chiriac.
The Government’s representative admitted that the additional funding is designed to ensure performance, while the higher salaries of civil servants will improve the efficiency of the system and will ensure high-quality services for the citizens.
“The government identified several tools, together with local public authorities, by which everyone is encouraged to increase their income. It is important for each local authority to have a development strategy for the locality. But without a particular number of competent, professional civil servants who are well paid, things will not go as smoothly as we want. Certainly, in terms of salaries, we lag behind the countries of the European Union. That is why we want to become part of the European Union as soon as possible so as to have decent salaries, just like in European states,” explained Diana Chiriac.
She noted that the local public authorities can increase their local budgets, benefiting from the instrument of voluntary amalgamation. According to the law, localities that decide to amalgamate voluntarily benefit from financial support from the state and can access European funds faster.
“Voluntary amalgamation is just one of the tools we have provided to the public authorities to increase their financial capacities. Another offered tool is the intercommunity development associations - a tool that is widely used in the European Union. We have already registered intercommunity development associations so that the first and second level LPAs can form associations based on this formula, increase their own revenues and ensure high-quality services for citizens in their localities,” stated Diana Chiriac.
The public debate entitled “Human resources crisis and salary system within Central Public Administration and Local Public Administration. Research” was staged within the initiative “Socially responsible management of external financing” of the Institute for Strategic Initiatives, in partnership with the Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup”, with support from Soros Foundation Moldova.
