Moldova is a leader by the size of costs incurred for the police. Of each 100 lei produced by Moldova’s economy, the people pay almost 2 lei for the services provided by the police, which is almost two times more than the average for the EU member states. For comparison, our neighbors Romanians pay by 30% less than the Moldovans for the services of the Ministry of the Interior, says a study presented by economic policy expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Denis Gorea, IPN reports.
The expert said that in 2016 Moldova spend almost 2.55 billion lei from the national budget on the Ministry of the Interior. “The sum is impressive as we do not spend as much on education and health taken together,” stated the expert. He noted that if the costs for the Ministry of the Interior are reduced to the level of costs in the EU, almost 1 billion lei will be saved annually.
By 20 km of national roads could be repaired each year with this money and there will be no need to borrow money from international institutions for the purpose. For example, the Chisinau – Vadul lui Voda road could be fully repaired in 2018, without spending additional budget funds.
The efficiency of the Ministry of the Interior can be also determined by comparing the number of people with the number of police officers. Thus, the ratio is of 1:223, as opposed to 1: 348 in the EU. For comparison, a Romanian police officer serves the interests of 377 people, by 154 people more than in Moldova. If Moldova wants to be as efficient as the EU in terms of the police, we should have 10,000 police officers instead of 16,000.
Denis Gorea noted the number of police employees is on the rise and this is a reason for concern as the population declines. This upward trend in Moldova is contrary to the evolution in the EU member states, where the number of police officers decreases even if the population there grows. The Ministries of the Interior in the EU states rapidly adopt modern surveillance technologies and, as a result, the number of police officers for maintaining public order can be reduced.
The expert recommended that the Ministry of the Interior should reduce the number of officers and sub-officers to 10,000, while the Ministry’s budget should be decreased to 1.5 billion lei.
