The PAS government should assume the reform of the local public authorities as it holds a comfortable majority in Parliament, which enables it to launch painful, but necessary reforms, said ex-Deputy Speaker Iurie Țap, former mayor of Florești. According to him, the PAS government should have started the reform of the local public administration immediately after taking over and shouldn’t have delayed this process, IPN reports.
The ex-Deputy Speaker of Parliament noted that the government should insists on the reform of the LPAs even if this reform is not popular and does not generate political benefits.
“The local authorities are regarded as electoral instruments. The government made a mistake two years ago, when it came to power and didn’t see this priority. This reform should have been done then. Accelerating the reform of the local public administration is one of the conditions imposed by the European Commission. Didn’t we know that if we want to become Europeans, we must do this reform? Why wasn’t it launched two years ago? The political parties should assume responsibility. Both the PAS and Maia Sandu clearly said that they assume all the reforms that serve the public interest. You cannot say one thing and do another thing. The next parliamentary majority can have another configuration and can ignore all these reforms. A comfortable majority exists now and all the reforms should be therefore assumed and done swiftly,” Iurie Țap stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei channel.
According to official data, one third of the localities in the Republic of Moldova have a population under 1,500, while the population of 90% of the localities is under 5,000.
“You cannot do the reform in education or in healthcare without the reform of the public administration. Decentralization of power means the state offers the citizens the right to govern themselves. But the politicians do not want to concede power. The minimum figure of 5,000 inhabitants ensures the resources needed to cover the costs incurred by specialist and money remains for public services. Why do we need a mayor if this seeks money for salaries, roads and lighting from the Government? What is the purpose of the local authorities if they cannot provide services? I don’t know if 10-15% of the mayor’s offices have now administrative capacity. Administrative capacity means the administrative costs must represent 30% of the own incomes,” said Iurie Țap.
On Monday, Parliament adopted the law on the voluntary amalgamation of localities. Under the law, the territory of the amalgamated territorial-administrative unit must form a whole and the unit must have at least 3,000 inhabitants. The localities that decide to merge will benefit from financial stimulation measures.
