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: Rascani district
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Rascani district has 28 mayor’s offices for 54 settlements and a population of over 64,000.
Natalia Gutu, director of the Association of Businesswomen from the Rural Sector, said that 11 of the 28 mayor’s offices of the district manage settlements with fewer than 1,500 residents. “The efficiency is low. The current administrative division does not allow the local authorities to work efficiently and to provide services of a high quality for the population. This has a negative impact on the socioeconomic development of the people, especially in rural areas,” said the expert, suggesting that the lower limit of residents in administrative units should be raised, in accordance with the Law on Administrative Decentralization.
In the previous period, the local public authorities counted mainly on money from the local and district budgets and on the allocations from the state budget, but there were also initiatives aimed at attracting money through projects. The district has been involved in the pilot-project to implement the per student financing formula in schools since 2010. This project helped the authorities of the first and second levels to optimize costs and to create better conditions for students, stated Natalia Gutu
She noted that the mayor’s offices that became involved in different investment projects develop better. The institutions are modernized and better conditions are created for the inhabitants, like in Mihaileni, Galaseni, Singureni, and Corlateni. For things to go better in the district, the infrastructure must be modernized. The people must be supplied with drinking water and the roads must be repaired. Services should be created for the people at local level. For the purpose, the public authorities should apply mainly to transfrontier and regional projects and these should be trained and motivated to design projects.
As to the coming local elections, the director of the Association of Businesswomen from the Rural Sector said she expects that the territorial-administrative division will be modified and the number of mayor’s offices will be reduced, that more projects will be implemented by attracting funds and that the local public authorities and civil society will cooperate more efficiently.
Mariana Galben, IPN
