Civil society puts forward budget-related proposals

The National Youth Council of Moldova suggested that the money for financing specialized schools should be transferred to general schools, where there should be integrated children with disabilities. The proposal was formulated in the context of the discussions on the 2013 state budget that is to be adopted in the final reading, Info-Prim Neo reports. “In order to improve the learning conditions in schools and to help the children with special needs to integrate into the general schools, the money should be transferred to these schools,” the Council’s secretary general Alexandru Musteata said after consultations over the budget involving civil society that were organized by Head of Parliament Marian Lupu. It was proposed that the Ministry of Youth and Sport should not implement policies, but should only draft them. “It’s hard to see if they spend the money efficiently or not. Only one of the planned 4-5 normative documents was adopted during a year. Six such documents are to be approved next year. Six documents is not much for a ministry, but they cannot perform at least this task. The proposal was to transfer the policy implementation powers to another state institution or to the nongovernmental organizations,” stated Alexandru Musteata. Marian Lupu said the proposals put forward by the NGOs will be taken into account, stressing that 20% or 30% of the funds for supporting the small and medium-sized enterprises should be allocated to the youth and such a provision should be included in the budget when it’s discussed in the third reading. “We do not change the purpose of the program, but an important part of these funds should be earmarked for young people, for creating workplaces, etc.” said the Speaker. He also said that an agreement was reached to strengthen the cooperation between the Parliament and civil society.