Dorin Chirtoaca: The government wants to push the Chisinau City Hall into a financial blockage

Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca says that by their attitude towards the local public authorities, the governors show that they want the City Hall to experience a financial blockage. They treat the local authorities according to their political colour. The discrimination becomes evident when comparing the municipalities of Chisinau and Balti, Dorin Chirtoaca told the newspaper Jurnal de Chisinau in an interview, cited by Info-Prim Neo. This is a reason for the international organisations to reprove the Government because it also receives financial assistance from abroad, Dorin Chirtoaca said. The mayor described the relations between the central authorities and the local public authorities as technical cooperation. According to the cited source, the Chisinau administration takes part in different events as required by the law. A governmental commission was set up even in the case of the accident that occurred on Drumul Viilor Street (A number of protection pillars at the basement of a building under construction caved in – e.n.), the mayor stated. In fact, Dorin Chirtoaca says, the State Construction Inspectorate is responsible for such incidents as it should monitor the constructions. Earlier, this was the task of the local public administration, but the central authorities deprived it of certain powers, including to deal with unauthorised constructions, to monitor the constructions and the incomes coming from registering authorisations in constructions etc. According to Dorin Chirtoaca, the district head’s offices are obliged by law to keep the situation under control and to identify the unauthorised constructions, but they cannot intervene because they have to notify the State Construction Inspectorate that must draw up a report, send it to the district head’s office for this to issue an ordinance regarding the payment of fines, demolition or others. Somethimes, this process lasts for whole months or years or does not even start. The building located on 86 Columna Street, where a tragic accident happened (A block of concrete fell from the fifth floor of a construction on a nearby house, destroying the roof that collapsed on a six-year-old child and killed him – e.n.), was erected until the fifth floor with no reactions on the part of the Inspectorate, the mayor said. According to Chirtoaca, there is no final conclusion yet because the Prosecutor’s Office is also involved. But if the administrative commission ascertains violations and decides that the building should be demolished, the decision will be immediately appealed to court and a new delaying process will begin. Speaking about Valea Morilor lake, the mayor said that they cannot take steps to clean it and reactivate the recreational area until a sewerage system is built in Buiucanii de Jos quarter. The municipality needs at least 100 million lei to solve the problems in this zone, but it does not have this money. The mayor says that the works or contracts without financial coverage and the works that cost more than planned by the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) are a burden on the budget. For instance, there are no financial resources to repair the trolleybus line from Independentei Street, the line starting from the Agrarian University, for the park Valea Morilor. At the same time, the local public administration was obliged to cover 60-70% of the heating charge from its austere budget. The mayor says that the CMC’s decision to increase the heating charge and cover a part of it for the population from the municipal budget, made last January, did not have financial coverage. “The people should know how much a service costs and there should be implemented a mechanism that would help the people to pay that price,” Dorin Chirtoaca said. According to the mayor, Termocom must present economic proofs for the 2007 and 2008 tariffs. Afterwards, a mechanism will be worked out so that the population could cover the cost of this service. The World Bank obliges Moldova to implement a system of individual compensations. Chirtoaca says that another solution would be to spread out the payments for heat throughout the year. “We planned 180 million lei for such compensations for the first time this year. Unfortunately, we could lose the 180 million lei as well as another 200 million lei from the municipal budget as a result of the actions taken by the Government through Termocom and the courts,” the mayor said. Over 50 million lei was planned for investments in 2008. According to Dorin Chirtoaca, this is not much, but if the problems with Termocom hadn’t existed, the local authorities would have earmarked over 300 million lei for investments, Info-Prim Neo cites the interview given by the mayor general of Chisinau to the paper Jurnal de Chisinau.