Minister of Labor and Social Protection Alexei Buzu called on the administration of Chisinau to identify funds in the municipal budget to pay the salaries of personal assistants working in the capital city. According to him, the Government ensures the remuneration of personal assistants from districts and the municipality of Balti, while the municipality of Chisinau and ATU Gagauzia should identify funds in the local budget for the purpose. The number of personal assistants in Chisinau is not so high for their salaries to represent a burden for the municipal budget, IPN reports.
The minister noted that together with the launch of the Restart reform, the payment of salaries to personal assistants from the Population Support Fund was abandoned. The value of the Population Support Fund depended on the amount accumulated from the airport tax and there was no predictability in terms of revenues. After the liquidation of the fund, the Government assumed responsibility to pay the salaries of personal assistants working in the country, except for those from Chisinau municipality and ATU Gagauzia.
“A part of the personal assistants working in the country were paid from that Population Support Fund. The fund was managed by the Government and resources were accumulated in this fund from several taxes, with the airport tax being one of the important sources. Because of the experienced crises that significantly affected passenger traffic, the pandemic, the war, the number of passengers decreased and the revenues collected into this fund decreased. In 2022 and 2023, the Government intervened through budget amendments to fill the hole in this fund. In the context of the Restart reform, it was decided to liquidate this fund so as to no longer have these disturbances in the system. This decision was taken in July 2023. Respectively, for all district councils and Balti municipality, the Government identified resources to cover the needs that were previously covered with money from this fund. In Gagauzia and Chisinau municipality, the authorities had to identify funds from their own budget,” Alexei Buzu stated in the program “At 360 Degrees” on Radio Moldova station.
The minister recommended that the local authorities in Chisinau should find money for the wages of personal assistants in the municipality, noting that the necessary amount is not very large.
“According to the data we have, out of the 2,200 personal assistants working in Chisinau, 380-390 were remunerated from that Population Support Fund. A large part of the assistants were anyway paid from the municipality’s own incomes. Respectively, we do not think it is such a big problem for Chisinau municipality to identify money to remunerate 380-390 people. Especially since they had six months to identify these resources. There are solutions to identify these funds in the municipal budget. The legislation makes it clear that any authority must prioritize the remuneration of work. I believe that the colleagues from the Chisinau Municipal Council and the City Hall will identify these resources,” explained Alexei Buzu.
In the Republic of Moldova there are 7,200 personal assistants who provide support to adults and children with severe disabilities.
