Efficient decentralization means not only duties, but also mechanisms for fulfilling these, the Government’s secretary general Igor Talmazan stated in a public debate entitled “Monitoring the advancing of decentralization reform: lessons learned and future challenges”. His opinion was shared by other participants in the event, IPN reports.
“It often happens that in the decentralization process, we offer more duties, but these are not supported by funds and clear mechanisms and we cannot be sure we will have sufficient human resources to carry these out. Also, sometimes there are no laws that would cover these segments. We have many outdated laws that do not meet the daily needs,” stated Igor Talmazan.
USAID Deputy Head of Mission John Riordan reiterated that the organization he represents aims to further support the decentralization processes in the Republic of Moldova. “I believe in this system that is much more efficient at the local level. We can say that in Moldova there are rather ambitious and attainable objectives,” stated John Riordan.
Igor Boțan, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT), noted that the public administration reform is the most painful reform in the country’s history due to the many attempts that failed. However, the fact that Moldova obtained the EU candidate status is a real chance that the authorities and the citizens should not miss. “The citizens in the Republic of Moldova are not inclined to offer more power to the local public authorities. Before continuing this reform, it is very important to realize that we have to work with the citizens so that they realize the benefits. From the concept, we realize that this reform will last for seven years. This is very good as there is time to do away with all the drawbacks,” stated Igor Boțan.
“We faced challenges in the process of identifying these sentinel indicators and in obtaining data about the public administration. To gather these data, we had to make additional efforts to request them. This hampers the processes we perform as part of the monitoring. The lack of data is a big problem. We would like to discuss what is proposed and done in the field of the local public administration in terms of digitalization. We would like to see the concerted efforts of all the stakeholders,” stated Inna Vrânceanu, ADEPT project coordinator.
MP Larisa Voloh, who heads the commission on public administration, said that a number of aspects of the decentralization reform have been discussed on the parliamentary platform. “We are in the process of drafting a bill that will bring more clarity as regards this process. We hope the bill will reach Parliament in the first half of this year. We want this reform to be a consensus reform and an irreversible reform that will improve the situation in the local public administration,” said the MP.
The mayor of Lozova commune of Strășeni district Lilian Botnaru said the processes should be hastened. There is a risk that the reform will not be implemented till the end. Political forces that will not share the view on the administrative reform can enter Parliament. “We do not need mayor’s offices that cannot finance and manage themselves and are short of staff. These are unable to provide efficient public services. To my mind, these should unite with other localities and create communes or municipalities,” noted the mayor.
The mayors who attended the discussions said any reform should start form citizens’ interests first of all.
