Entrepreneurs demand that one-stop offices are freed from political and any other influence

Representatives of local companies ask that the ‘one-stop offices’ mechanism is freed from political and any other influence by working out legislation regulating the activity of these offices and introducing amendments to the legislation, especially to the law on local public administration. The request was formulated by participants in the international conference “Business Regulatory and Tax Administration Reform in Moldova” organized by USAID/BIZTAR Project last week. Two examples noted by Info-Prim Neo, different by approach and result, confirm the correctness of the conclusions that the given mechanism should be protected by law. During two years of the opening of the one-stop office in Orhei town, 550 applications from businessmen from the town and district for different work permits, urbanism certificates and construction authorizations have been dealt with. Ina Negruta, coordinator of the Orhei-based one-stop office, told Info-Prim Neo that the office legalizes documents authorizing the activity of businesses, coordinating its activity and obtaining the necessary data from other public authorities by electronic means, not forcing the applicant to go personally to the required institutions. Negruta said that the employees of the one-stop office in this period made about 600 trips to villages, where they issued the documents asked for by entrepreneurs. “The town and district councils as well as the construction divisions and other authorities are receptive. We notified them before starting working and we have a prompt answer to our requests. The data are sent to us in the agreed terms,” Negruta said. He stated that in concert they managed to considerably reduce the time spent by the businesspeople from town and district. During two years, there were issued construction authorizations and certificates for gas pipelines, milk collection points, recreational areas, industrial premises, animal-breeding complexes, garbage platforms, ponds, shops, filing stations. The one-stop office is very popular among the businessmen from the town and district, says the representative of the Orhei-based one-stop office. But the Edinet-based one-stop office stopped working last December. This happen even if the economic entities from Edinet town and district welcomed the opening, in 2006, of the office that worked under the zonal Chamber of Trade and Industry, the office coordinator Mihai Balan said. “New people came to work on the District Council after the local elections of last summer. We did not manage to get along with them. Our applications to provide us with data for legalizing the authorizations and certificates of the companies “got lost” and the businesspeople had to come for several times to receive the documents for which they applied. Therefore, the idea of such an entrepreneurial practice as the one-stop office was discredited. When we tried to explain the advantages to the deputy mayor, he told us that the members of the council do not want to lose the contact with the economic entities. They want to know who and what does and to work directly with them,” Balan said. The one-stop offices in Moldova have been opened at the State Registration Chamber, Licensing Chamber, Customs Office and in 15 districts of the country. The sad experience of the Edinet-based one-stop office seems not the only one. Taking into account the fact that the Ministry of Economy and Trade is working on the conception of the one-stop office, experts of USAID/ BIZTAR Project and independent experts proposed working out a common strategy for implementing the one-stop office at the initial stage. The legislative and institutional amendments will be formulated after this strategy is coordinated with representatives of companies and of the local and central public authorities.