Performance-based budgeting allows not only quantifying the expenses, but also assessing the results of the financed activities. This enables to follow how the budget allocations are used and how they benefit the community, Angela Secrieru, Business Consulting Institute consultant, said in a roundtable meeting that analyzed the implementation of the initiative “Performance-based budgeting – instrument for optimizing work of local public administrations”, Info-Prim Neo reports. The initiative was launched by the Joint Integrated Local Development Program (JILDP) in 2009 in Balti, Ungheni, Floresti, Comrat and Stefan-Voda towns. “In this period (2009 – 2010), we managed to improve the LPAs’ capacity for more efficiently planning the available resources, engaging people in decision-making and making the local public authorities more responsible,” said Valeria Ieseanu, UNDP/JILDP project manager. The UNDP/JILDP provided consultancy to these local public authorities, organized training seminars, offered technical assistance in the form of equipment for the finance divisions of mayor’s offices and by 200,000 lei for implementing projects included in their local development strategies. Within the initiative, the five LPAs set up projects to improve the local public services, optimize heat supply and create wooded and recreational areas for the residents of the given towns. Mayor of Floresti Grigore Cojocaru spoke about the performance-based budgeting of a project to reconstruct the primary school that will be later extended and will include a kindergarten as well. “We do not have enough money. This budgeting method helps us to see how each leu is spent. Everyone can see it,” he said. Alexandr Tarnavski, deputy mayor of Comrat, said the mayor’s office of their town for many years had planned the local budget on the basis of priorities. But performance-based budgeting is something different. “We saw it when implementing a project to modernize the heating system of the local kindergarten. There were analyzed all the resources and selected the best project proposal. The costs for purchasing materials and equipment were calculated in detail in order to rationalize expenditure,” he said. Veaceslav Bulat, director of the Urban Development Institute that provided consultancy services within the projects implemented in the pilot-towns, said the detailed analysis of the available resources and their transparent use represent attractive points for potential investors. “The experience of Poland, Slovakia and other countries that successfully use performance-based budgeting convinced us of this,” said the expert. Deputy Minister of Finance Maria Caraus said a part of Moldova’s state budget was planned on the basis of such a method. “Currently, 30% of the expenditure is used to cover certain programs. Performance-based budgeting is in fact project or program management. We are ready to share this experience and, together with the development partners, to help the LPAs to implement this method,” she said. The LPAs are to switch to performance-based budgeting from 2012. According to Maria Caraus, the objective is not easy, but can be achieved within about five years if the accumulated experience is employed successfully. The Joint Integrated Local Development Program aims to strengthen legal and regulatory frameworks and streamline local administrative procedures and systems. There is an emphasis on developing and implementing a framework for the effective delegation of authority to the local public authorities, fiscal decentralization to deliver essential services, and the promotion of a greater role for women in decision-making bodies. It is implemented by the Government of Moldova with the assistance of UNDP Moldova, UNIFEM and the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.