Chisinau administration does not adequately ensure transparency in use of public money, report

The local Chisinau authorities must work out a strategy and a plan of action for ensuring transparency in the process of using public money and should review the planned purchases of goods, works and services in the education system so as to satisfy the real needs of the subordinate institutions, recommends the monitoring group of the campaign ”Public Money should be Accounted for!”, Info-Prim Neo reports. The first report of the monitoring team that was presented in a news conference on September 27 shows that the law on transparency in decision-making has not been obeyed in the process of formulating, examining and approving the budget of Chisinau municipality as the people and the interested sides have not been involved in decision-making. The report also says that the municipal authorities do not adequately ensure transparency in the use of public money after the approval of the budget. “We have enough normative documents in Moldova that regulate the process of ensuring transparency in decision-making, but the municipal budget did not become accessible to the people after it was approved. Until recently, the given division could be hardly found among the dozens of materials published on the Chisinau administration’s website,” said program coordinator of the National Assistance and Information Center for NGOs “Contact” Vasile Cioaric. The report underlines the necessity of improving control over the correct use of the public money allocated to the education sector of Chisinau. “There must be contacted the beneficiaries, the economic entities that supply the municipal education institutions with products. The parents should be consulted about the food products given to children. The list of companies that are not allowed to take part in tender contests should be made public. The menu in education institutions sometimes includes products that are not served at meals,” said Petru Macovei, executive director of the Association of Independent Press. The monitoring team established that additional yearly taxes are levied from parents in some kindergartens, arguing the institutions do not have the necessary quantity of detergents. According to the report, the administration of the General Social Assistance Division of the municipality of Chisinau is unwilling to cooperate and ensure public control. “The beneficiaries of social services do not know their rights, while the social workers do not manage to provide services of a high quality owing to the large number of beneficiaries. A social worker has to provide services at home to 10-11 persons,” said Petru Macovei. He also said that there should be set up a special telephone line that the beneficiaries of social assistance at home could use to obtain information. The public budgets of the municipalities of Chisinau and Balti are monitored within the campaign ”Public Money should be Accounted for!” by joint groups consisting of journalists, representatives of public associations and ordinary people. The project is implemented by the Association of Independent Press with support from Soros Foundation Moldova.