Government’s refusal to ensure the local authorities with grain reserves is puzzling. Economic Analysis

Experts commend the intention by the central authorities to start decentralising powers in the state, but at the same time believe that the proposed instruments are not fitting the current state of affairs, as the collection of reserve supply of grain is not within the competences of the local mayors and councils, according to the Local Authorities Law. Veaceslav Gututui and Anatol Ignat, experts with the INRECO Conflict Resolution Institute, believe the indication by PM Vasile Tarlev to the local authorities, urging them to store reserve supply of food grains by themselves, is puzzling to say the least. The fact that the local administrations were suggested not to hope that the Government would solve their problems with the grain supply is labelled an unconceivable irresponsibility on the part of the central authorities in handling the effects of this year’s drought. In this connection, the experts are wondering what is the Agency for Material Reserve, Public Acquisitions and Humanitarian Aid taking care of, if the mayor, apart form his tasks to ensure a normal functioning of the public services, educational establishments and infrastructure, clean-up works etc., is forced to share part of the tasks with the aforementioned Agency!? By making such statements, say the experts, the Government of Moldova has once again confirmed its “creativeness and flexibility in the current conjuncture”. Although the decentralisation of powers is in full agreement with the authorities’ European aspiration, the experts say a severe drought had to happen for the Government to realise the need for administrative decentralisation. In the context, the premier requested the Ministry of Local Public Administration to speed up the publication of a state guide regarding the separation of powers, in order to ensure that all local authorities know “what they are responsible of”. The cited sources label the move a trick, also because it comes from a pro-communist government which, by definition, is oriented towards a full centralisation of leverages. The weather conditions do not always coincide with the Government’s and Parliament’s decisions. The unwillingness to deal with the critical situation and to designate persons in charge at local level reveals the government’s intention to find a subterfuge in case the social-economic situation gets worse. The government would certainly step in later, but no sooner than in three or four months. “Scapegoating” has already become a hobby of the central authorities, the experts assert. [Looking for scapegoats] The political conjuncture is not less important (on the contrary). The prime-minister’s idea comes immediately after the local elections in which the communists lost a great part of the electorate. Amid these complex political developments, the prime-minister utters the following statement: “They were elected by the people, won the local elections and must ensure activity and stability by making use of their powers. In good times, they trumpet their victory, but in times of difficulty, they blame the Government, the President or the Parliament”. This way, Tarlev has already found whom to blame for the upcoming food crisis. Who would have been in charge of the grain reserves had the communists celebrated a landslide win in the recent elections? In conclusion, the experts question themselves, what concretely have the Government and Parliament done to solve to problem of this summer’s drought? Have they established a special fund to assist farmers affected by bad weather? Have they formulated mechanisms that would ensure livestock with fodder till the next season? And finally, what is the Ministry of Agriculture and Food industry troubling itself with and what is the state policy in this area? In addition, the experts ask themselves whether the authorities asked for support the other countries’ governments and international institutions. The experts affirm that the aforementioned steps had to be planned early in the winter, which saw a low level of precipitations. However, these signals were not taken into account by the authorities. Thus, we can see that in Moldova the local public authorities are making use of Soviet-type schemes to create problems artificially and eventually solve them heroically, with the economic and social consequences being shouldered by farmers, small producers and all the consumers, who will pay from their pocket for the incompetence of the government, say the experts of the INRECO Conflict Resolution Institute and of the Business Consulting Institute.