Draft 2012 Chisinau Budget made public

The draft Chisinau Budget for 2012 that was made public on Thursday provides for expected incomes of 2.39 billion lei, which is by almost half a million more than this year, and estimated expenses of 2.61 billion lei, by 300 million lei or 13% more than this year, Info-Prim Neo reports. Veronica Herta, head of the municipal finance department, told public hearings on the Budget that the largest part of expenses – 54.2% – was for social purposes, and like this year, most money will go to education. Victor Gurau, a Communist councilor, stated that the Budget was not so much socially-oriented but rather austere. In his opinion, each spending line needed a thorough assessment and other approaches had to be adopted to identify new sources of income. “There are entire chapters which overlook the real potential of administering municipal property. We need to make the management of municipal property more effective, because this is where incomes are being missed. The problem is that the municipality has been using the same old budget system for years”, said Victor Gurau. Boris Golovin, the head of the Communist faction in the Chisinau Council, said the draft Budget had been presented to the councilors one day before the public hearings and they didn't have time to analyze it carefully. He said the Communist faction would probably vote for the draft Budget in the first reading, however ample discussions were needed before proceeding to the second one. Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca said that the announced estimates would be further modified. “Normally we would need a budget at least twice larger than the announced amount if we are to talk about solving delayed and worsened problems. For many years we have had a budget that has merely covered current necessities and almost no investment. Now we have a budget that introduces a tiny bit of investment, which is by far not what we need to have”. The draft Budget is to be debated in municipal commissions before being submitted for consideration in the first reading to the Municipal Council at its next meeting.