Prime-Minister Vasile Tarlev, at the Government’s sitting of Wednesday, March 5, scolded Economy and Commerce Minister Igor Dodon for not being explicit enough in his comments for the press concerning the Plan on reducing the number of budget earners in 2008 -2010, approved of on February 27. The Action Plan provides for decreasing the number of the employees in budget-funded entities with 10,000. As a result 218m lei are likely to be saved to be later used to increase the budget earners’ salaries. In addition, the Government expects the move will allow for maintaining the wage expenses at 10% of the GDP, a commitment the Government assumed in the Economic and Financial Policies Memorandum signed with the International Monetary Fund. “Many did not understand, mistook the optimization for layoff, and some newspapers are just waiting for occasions to criticize the Government,” – Tarlev said. Economy Minister Igor Dodon was calmer in regretting some journalists mistakenly understood his statements: “It’s not a matter of reduction, but of optimization.” According to him, the doctors and teachers are not going to lose their jobs. On the contrary the Government pays indemnities of 30,000 lei that young doctors and teachers go to work in the countryside. The minister says the reduction will be operated in controlling bodies and it is already under way. Layoffs are planned in public administrative structures. In addition, the personnel charts, approved of by the Finance Ministry for all the budget institutions provide for 247,000 units, and the real number of employees is 210,000 – 215,000. “Thus, categorically the optimization cannot lead to the reduction of personnel and the increase of unemployment,”- Dodon underlined.