About the meanings of the interim office period in Chisinau and the expectations at its end

Vasile Ursu who held the office of interim mayor in Chisinau during one year and a half was changed to the office of minister of Transport and Road Management, after Miron Gagauz left the position. The author of this castling is President Vladimir Voronin who signed the decrees on the dismissal of Gagauz and appointment of Ursu on Tuesday. Representatives of several categories of civil servants and experts told Info-Prim Neo that the role of Ursu was to “clean the road” for a mayor promoted and supported by communists. [“At most building site supervisor, not minister”] “The ad-interim office of Ursu was just a sham and uselessly spent money”, the leader of Social Action Bloc (SAB), member of the Chisinau Municipal Council Mihai Roscovan told Info-Prim Neo. He says that Ursu started grandiose projects that had little effect and required many expenses. His mission is accomplished after he finished clearing the road for another communist candidate, Roscovan says. The leader of SAB considers that Ursu was promoted to the office of ad-interim in order to fulfil the orders of the Communist Party. “All the changes necessary to the government were made with the direct contribution of Ursu. Now the president decided it is time for Ursu to leave the City Hall”, the cited source says. Roscovan is sure that the change was necessary in order to easily use the administrative resources in the electoral campaign, to strengthen the efforts of the local administration to the benefit of the communists. Also, Roscovan doubts the compliance of Ursu with the office of minister, because a minister is a political person but the former interim mayor “is no good even for a building site supervisor job”, Roscovanu said. [Communists say the “accomplishments” of Ursu are due to the collaboration with the government] The deputy chairman of the communist faction of CMC, former deputy-mayor of Chisinau, Eduard Smirnov told Info-Prim Neo that Ursu was heavily supported in the implementation of his grandiose plans, both financially and logistically. Smirnov mentioned about such projects as the model-districts, Pan Halippa Street, restoration of “Eternitate” monument. At the same time, Ursu promoted a wrong staff policy, the councillor says, exemplifying by the chronic lack of several district mayors, deputy-mayors who would have been in charge for constructions, and the massive dismissal of competent staffers, fact that affected the activity of the local administration. “The interim mayor worked hand in hand with central authorities, which offered him full support. However many problems of the city have not been solved”, Smirnov said. [Christian-Democrats are pleased with Ursu’s activity] Leader of CMC’s Christian Democrat faction Alexandru Corduneanu says that during the period when Ursu held the office, many projects were carried out. The most important are the beginning of local public administration’s renovation and finishing of the General Urban Plan (GUP) and of the Strategy for the development of the municipality in the next 20 years. The cited source says that although many projects were fulfilled there is plenty of work to do for the next mayors, including cleaning the courtyards, streets, solving infrastructure problems etc. [MNA says Ursu used the projects of the former administration] Many of the projects performed by Ursu on the development of the city, attracting investments, and others, were started by the former administration of the City Hall, leader of Moldova Noastra Alliance Pavel Caba told Info-Prim Neo. According to him, the interim “ran too much throughout the city instead of grounding on strategies and analysis, presenting himself as a doer, and not as a city manager”. Caba says that “during Ursu’s period” some good things were done as well, but he gave up too much, fact that disadvantaged him as a person, as well as the inhabitants of Chisinau. Caba says that the moment of the change is not the best one, because the person who will replace Ursu will be a new one, but the Council will maintain the same composition and it is not known whether the parties will have the same opinions. [Suburban mayors are optimistic about Ursu’s new office] Mayor of Colonita village Maria Iarmenco says that good things were accomplished during the management of Ursu because of the understanding with the government of Moldova. “The leave of Ursu is the beginning of a new development period of the municipality. Every person has the right to decide his faith, as Vasile Ursu did” Iarmenco said. She considers he will achieve good professional results in the new position. The fact that that he did not remain at the City Halls could be determined by his failure in the previous electoral campaign, Iarmenco concluded. [Former mayor says Ursu’s interim office is nothing else but destruction of local autonomy] Serafim Urecheanu, the former mayor of Chisinau told Info-Prim Neo that during the period of Ursu’s illegally held ad-interim duties, president Voronin finished his scenario on the destruction of the local public administration, general and financial autonomy – all these things made with help from Ursu. “It was expectable, because Ursu was obliged to choose between the penal proceedings and the loyalty to communists, and he chose obedience”, Urecheanu said. According to the cited source, in a year and a half, Ursu destroyed everything that was created during the previous years, he dismissed competent staffers, embezzled significant sums of money from the municipal budget and used them for the reconstruction of buildings that are not included in the municipal property, transformed the city into a dump, and the City Hall became the centre of all scandals. Politically, Ursu betrayed the cause and the colleagues from Chisinau, given that he is a member of “Moldova Noastra” Alliance, Ursu stated. Serafim Urecheanu considers that by replacing Ursu, Vladimir Voronin fulfilled the abusive subordination of the Chisinau, to a great extent with help from Ursu. All the available means were used in this respect: proceedings were initiated, important leaders working in the City Hall were arrested, the local administration system was destroyed, the city was financially blocked, being left without development allotments. At the same time, Urecheanu says that Vasile Ursu was used to replace the staff of the City Hall with the staff of the Clan, which is incompetent and corrupt. In order to realise the wishes of the government and communists’ doubtful projects worth millions of dollars, they bought the support of PPCD. Now PCRM shares what they gain with PPCD, as in the case of the municipal stations “Antena C” and “Euro TV Chisinau”. [Any interim office always means stammering – experts] The analyst Igor Munteanu told Info-Prim Neo that “any interim office, especially within the local public administration, means stammering”. According to the cited source, the fact that Ursu was not elected by the citizens did not allow him to rally the political forces of CMC and he did not manage to make the municipal authorities better. Moreover, the expert says, Ursu had no obligations in front of the citizens, only in front of those who supported him to this office. Munteanu says that in this case, the name of the next mayor is not as important as the fundamental transformation of the local administration. “The municipal civil servants must follow a “healthy” development strategy, offer high-quality services and long-term plans, and fulfil promises. They should not only whitewash the fences in the renewed districts or build different buildings at the memorial using money from doubtful funds”, the expert says. He hopes that this year’s elections will offer new alternatives and will revive the city.