On June 14, the citizens of Moldova will vote the new local administration. IPN News Agency set the goal to determine how the local public authorities coped during the current term that is coming to an end. Experts, opinion leaders and representatives of civil society from different settlements will assess the activity of the local authorities of the country’s districts and municipalities. IPN series: Hancesti district
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Hancesti district has 39 mayor’s offices for 63 settlements. The total population is over 120,000.
The head of the Hancesti-based public association “Woman Equal Partner” Valentina Gak said the management in most of the district’s settlements is defective. The tight budgets of the mayor’s offices, the chronic lack of economic entities with efficient economic activities, the limited possibilities of attracting professional human resources and financial resources (internal and external investments) diminished the role of the mayor’s office and the local council. Most of the mayor’s offices cannot apply to financing programs implemented by ministries by themselves, while the small mayor’s offices cannot ensure economic and financial sustainability in their activity.
Over the last four years, some of the mayor’s offices managed to attract additional financial resources to implement infrastructure, water and sewerage, culture and sport and other kinds of projects. The district council started to implement such large-scale projects as the restoration of the Manuc-Bey Mansion and the construction of the sports school. The Lapusna mayor’s office is implementing a project to restore the Palace “Alexandru Lapusneanu”, while the Stolniceni mayor’s office is building a water supply and sewerage system.
The local public authorities got financial resources through the EU-funded Joint Operational Program Romania-Ukraine-Republic of Moldova 2007-2013. About 15 mayor’s offices obtained financing from the national funds (ecological, regional development and energy efficiency ones). ”Regretfully, particular results are due to the political affiliation of some of the employees of the local public administration, not due to the investment attraction capacities,” said Valentina Gak.
She also said that large-scale investment projects are implemented with difficulty. Most of the initiatives launched earlier haven’t been finished, while the recently started ones are implemented slowly. Over the last four years, there were practically no major social projects intended for socially deprived groups of people. The construction, repairing and rehabilitation of buildings were the main concern and this fact generated the appearance of monopolies on the part of specialized firms. The district needs projects to create workplaces so as to reduce the unemployment rate and social projects to set up reintegration centers for children and youth, continuous training centers for unemployed persons.
Asked about the mayor’s offices that achieved results, Valentina Gak gave as example the mayor’s office of Stolniceni village where 38 million lei was invested in building a water and sewerage system. In Sofia village, 28 million lei was invested for the same purpose. The mayor’s offices managed by mayors who enjoy the support of the ruling parties won projects. A territorial reform is needed as the excessive politicization leads to differentiated economic development of settlements.
About the electoral promises made in the previous election campaign, Valentina Gak said the promises referring to water/sewerage, gasification, roads and territorial development were more or less delivered, but the promises to create workplaces and ensure equitable conditions for all the economic entities were not. The economic entities were pressurized into taking the side of a particular political party.
Valentina Gak noted that the stake of the June 14 local general elections must be the firm fight against corruption in the administration (arranging of tender contests, monopolization of contracts, nepotism and excessive politicization) and the choosing of professional, competent and devoted persons for administrative posts.
Alina Marin, IPN
