Districts are unable to ensure Moldova’s decentralisation

The Moldovan society hasn’t yet realised the true meaning of decentralisation, since it gave its political support to the idea of dividing again the country into districts and of having an excessive number of territorial units governed by local administration, Vladimir Ciobanu, chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Administration and Territorial Development, told a conference themed “Decentralisation: Successful Policies and Future Prospects”. Ciobanu says that those over 300 town and village halls existing across the country are not vested with sufficient administrative capacity, as they are not even able to maintain financially the mayor’s support team. He believes that the local autonomy will not become a reality as long as the Law on local public finances, which would empower communities not just to participate in formulating their financial needs but also give them the autonomous right to manage local finances, is not adopted and put into practice. Paolo Berizzi, head of the Political and Economic Department of the European Commission’s Moldova Country Office, stated that if the local authorities could enjoy broader powers, more rights and financial resources, it will lead to better governance to the benefit of the citizens. In his words, decentralisation is not a matter of fashion, it is a necessity that brings the level of administration closer to the needs of the common citizens. At the same time, Paolo Berizzi added, local autonomy cannot be ensured without the decentralisation of resources from the central budget to the local budget, or without taking into account the communities’ capacity to collect taxes and spend the revenues. Igor Munteanu, executive director of IDIS Viitorul, said that decentralisation has all the chances of becoming an instrument to convince the European Union of Moldova’s willingness to purse a course without any external pressure and of its determination to keep going that way. When it comes to political will, some laws are adopted. But that is not enough for Moldova. What decentralisation really needs to become a reality here is practical measures, inspiration, creativeness, and the capacity to involve communities, Munteanu concluded. Victor Popa, expert at IDIS Viitorul, said that although decentralisation has been a frequent topic for debates in Moldova for many years, it has never been implemented because the state has preserved its authoritative powers and made no effort to reform the public administration as a system, to formulate a national strategy, programme or priority-based policy in this area. The conference was organised by the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives Viitorul in partnership with the Ministry of Local Public Administration, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy and Trade, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry.