On June 14, the citizens of Moldova will vote the new local administration. IPN News Agency set the goal to determine how the local public authorities coped during the current term that is coming to an end. Experts, opinion leaders and representatives of civil society from different settlements will assess the activity of the local authorities of the country’s districts and municipalities. IPN series: Comrat municipality
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The municipality of Comrat, unlike Chisinau and Balti, includes only one town. The total population of the town is over 25,000.
Executive director of the Comrat-based Youth Center “Piligrim-Demo” Mihail Sirkeli said the geopolitical factor felt in the campaign prior to the elections to choose the Bashkan of Gagauzia is felt in the campaign preceding the June 14 local general elections too. For the third time in a row, the local elections are preceded by the Bashkan elections. Current mayor of Comrat Nicolae Dudoglo, who since 2007 has taken part in all the elections in Gagauzia, campaigned actively for the post of Bashkan, but now does nothing, banking on his activism of February-March. This method helped him win the elections two times.
During over 10 years, things in the town haven’t changed much. The laying out of the central park is the only visible change. The other initiatives are stagnant. The local water pipeline is very old and causes huge losses of water. Such problems as the sewerage and treatment of wastewater and the renovation of damaged education institutions weren’t solved either. The unauthorized waste dumps are another problem. These can be seen at every corner. If some buildings are renovated and others are constructed in the town, this is due to the businessmen who work in Comrat, not to the local administration. Regretfully, the people do not think about the problems that remained unsolved when they go to the polls, being often influenced by the geopolitical factor.
In most of the cases, in the activity of the local public authorities everything depends on the mechanism for distributing public finances, especially the capital investments, which is not at all transparent. There is a tendency to distribute this money based on political clientelism. The management of public funds remains excessively centralized. The Law on Local Public Finances does not give enough financial independence to the territorial-administrative units of the first level and of the second level as well. The independence level must be much greater so that the settlements can take decisions to solve the local problems.
The number of mayor’s offices should be reduced. In the Autofocus Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, there are settlements with about 500 residents and these villages have their own mayor’s office. Such an administrative division is inefficient. The system should be modified and the territorial-administrative units should be extended. Real financial decentralization is needed. Though the law stipulates powers for the local authorities, these cannot be used because there is insufficient financial independence and there is no autonomy in the decision-making process, stated Mihail Sirkeli.
Elena Nistor, IPN
