Minister of Education Maia Sandu accuses the General Division of Education, Youth and Sport of the Chisinau Municipal Council of abuse of power as it adopted its own regulations for holding contests for naming directors and vice directors of education institutions.

In a news conference, Maia Sandu said that besides breaking the law, which provides that these regulations are worked out by the Ministry of Education, the Division’s document does not meet the existing requirements. Contacted by phone by IPN, the Division’s head Tatiana Nagnibeda-Tverdohleb said such a decision was taken at the level of the City Hall and municipality.

The minister told the news conference that the regulations concerning the holding of contests were approved by the Government, but haven’t been yet published in the Official Gazette. Some of the local public authorities profited from this and decided to formulate their own regulations, as it happened in Chisinau.

According to the minister, the regulations worked out by the Chisinau Education Division ignored the legal provision that the contests are recorded by audio and video equipment. As it was decided in Chisinau, all the 120 contests here will be held during three days, between May 11 and May 13. By 40 contests should be thus staged a day, but the Ministry’s experience shows that at most five contests can be held daily.

Maia Sandu believes that by such decisions, the local public administration is trying to gain electoral benefits. The Ministry of Education annulled the regulations adopted by the Division and is considering filing a complaint over abuse of power to the prosecution bodies.

Tatiana Nagnibeda-Tverdohleb has told IPN that she will comment on this case later.