Chisinau’s 2008 budget passes first reading in uncertain circumstances

After its third attempt, the Chisinau City Council (CMC) has finally passed today the Chisinau’s 2008 draft budget upon first reading, with several councillors calling into question the accuracy of vote counting. Whereas CMC Chair Mihai Ghimpu announced that the draft passed with the vote of 28 councillors, the Communist and the Humanist-Democratic councillors claimed that some of their votes had been mistakenly counted. Mihai Ghimpu refused to clear up the question during the meeting, saying that the issue will be elucidated after the minutes are examined. The Communist councillors left the meeting hall in protest. After the draft passed, the city finance department informed the Council that some extra 83 million lei were identified in order to increase the budget’s incomes, which are to be considered at second reading. Thus, the budget as it is currently drafted provides for incomes of 1.4 billion lei and expenses of 1.45 billion lei. The proposal of several councillors to raise the expenditure by 200 million lei with the purpose to further cover the difference in heating charges to the benefit of the city’s residents didn’t receive the required number of votes. Valentina Vazdautan, head of the finance department, said it would not be right to include these expenses in the budget, since it is not yet known how high the charges will rise next year.