Civil society and independent press will monitor how public money is spent

The civil society and independent media in partnership with the local public administrations will monitor the use of public money in four towns located in different regions of Moldova. The monitoring will be carried out as part of the project “Public Money should be Accounted for!”, which was launched by the Independent Press Association on October 7, Info-Prim Neo reports. Project director Petru Macovei told a news conference that the project will be implemented during a year, between September 2008 and September 2009, in the towns of Soroca, Ungheni, Rezina and Cimislia. A monitoring group composed of representatives of the local public administration, local independent newspapers (“Observatorul de Nord”, “Unghiul”, “Cuvantul” and “Business Info”) and of a local nongovernmental organization will be set up in every town. The members of the monitoring groups will be trained to form and fulfill local budgets, to make public acquisitions. A selected section of the budget will be monitored in every town at every stage – from formation to fulfillment. The local newspapers will include permanent “Public Money should be Accounted for” columns through which the people will be informed about the way in which the public money is managed. There will be published a budget fulfillment monitoring guide. Roundtable meetings will be held in different settlements at the end of the project to disseminate the experience of the four towns. “We started from the idea that we, the people that pay taxes and contribute to the formation of the budget, have the right to know how the public money is spent,” Petru Macovei said. “Unfortunately, the authorities inadequately inform the public about this process and post general information in the media so that neither the press nor the people know exactly how the budget is formed, how the public money is used and how public acquisitions are made,” the project director said. The mayor of Cimislia town Gheorghe Raileanu said that he accepted with pleasure to take part in the project, though he is aware of the risks he assumed. According to the mayor, as in any business, the administration of a settlement is accompanied by losses and failures, which could be used by the political opponents and could lead to the loss of political dividends. At the same time, the project offers the possibility of revealing the shortcomings in the legislation that often hinder the local administrations, the mayor said. Nicolae Sanduleac, the director of the Ungheni paper “Unghiul”, said that the way in which the public money is managed was always kept secret by the administration. He voiced hope that if the mayor accepted to participate in the project, the town residents and the residents of the districts will be informed about the way in which their money is spent through the agency of the paper. The project “Public Money should be Accounted for!” is financed by Soros-Moldova Foundation through the Public Administration and Good Governance Program. The project budget is $32,000.