The Government has initiated the amendment of the legal framework on the distribution of revenues to local budgets and allocation of special-purpose transfers. Through this amendment, the Government will be able to pay salaries to personal assistants instead of the Chisinau City Hall. The allocated funds will be subsequently withdrawn from the local budget, said the Government’s spokesman Daniel Vodă, being quoted by IPN.

“Mayor Ceban cut the salaries of personal assistants in Chisinau, leaving them without money and in a very serious situation. The people with severe disabilities were left without much-needed care. This is unacceptable and the Government will come up with an emergency solution,” said Prime Minister Dorin Recean.

The Premier noted that the personal assistants do not have time to wait. The people must not suffer due to the mayor’s inability to manage the City Hall and allocate public money to those who need it most.

Hundreds of personal assistants in Chisinau, especially of retirement age, were laid off, and those who remained had their wages halved after the municipal authorities announced that they no longer had money to pay them and would not hire new personal assistants who submitted applications. The City Hall accused the central authorities of not including Chisinau municipality in the social assistance reform “Restart” through which the Personal Assistance service from January 1, 2024 has been financed with state budget funds, while the personal assistants were transferred under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. The central authorities invoked, in turn, that Chisinau municipality and the administrative-territorial unit of Gagauzia have sufficient possibilities to finance the salaries of personal assistants from their own incomes, but also from special-purpose transfers from the state budget.