The governmental program to build over 1,000 kilometers of roads in more than 1,000 communities, which was initiated by the leader of the ruling Democratic Party Vlad Plahotniuc, is populist, electoral and without full budget backing, said Dumitru Budianschi, programs director at the independent think tank “Expert-Grup”.
In an interview for Radio Free Europe’s Moldovan Service, quoted by IPN, the expert said the PDM’s initiative is rather unrealistic. “It will be implemented within the limits of the roads fund that totals 492 million lei, plus the 88 million allocated recently. The project will be implemented to a certain extent. Secondly, there are great risks as to quality. What kind of quality can we expect if the works will be done in a hurry, at any cost. We witnessed similar works in 2015. If you look at the studies we conducted, you will see what kinds of works were done, with the violation of all the road repair norms,” stated Dumitru Budianschi, noting that the rest of about 1.1 billion lei remains without coverage.
He also said that the way in which the money was distributed and for what communities hasn’t been made public. It is not good when the central authorities try to implement projects by direct involvement in communities. The money should be better transferred to the local authorities for a special purpose so that these improve road infrastructure.
As to an eventual political undertone in the distribution of money, the expert said after the money is allocated, it will be evident if there was political clientelism or not. “I can say with certitude that namely the second part of this Government decision, concerning the local roads program, is populist and electoral. It wasn’t planned so that it ensured results and the money was spent efficiently. Moreover, I’m skeptical that this sum could be collected, which is the money would be found,” stated Dumitru Budianschi.
According to him, revenues should be now swiftly collected into the budget and no money should be allocated for other programs so as to gather the 1.6 billion lei necessary for this program by this yearend. It is rather hard to find this money as a result of redistribution. If it does not come from additional revenues, other programs will be disrupted.
Dumitru Budianschi also said that this program is planned for 2018, but it is not a strategic development or a medium-term development program so that it could be further developed.
