The local public authorities complain about excessive administrative control and shortage of staff in the local administrative bodies owing to the low salaries. They demand to decentralize the staff policy and remuneration system. The problems faced by mayors were discussed in a common meeting of the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CALM) and members of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Pavel Filip, IPN reports.
The public servants asked to review the reasons for holding local elected officials or local functionaries criminally, administratively or disciplinarily accountable, in accordance with the Council of Europe’s recommendations. They also asked to correlate the legal powers with the level of pay and institutional capacities.
Mayor of Straseni town Valentina Casian said that only five of the 12 posts of public functionaries are occupied in their town. Among the vacancies is the post of jurist. When a series of decisions of the local council are challenged in court, the mayor, instead of doing his job, has to go to court to prove he was right when he proposed a draft decision or another.
Mayor of Cimislia Gheorghe Raileanu said a public functionary collects a salary of 2,200 lei on average, including the jurists and other specialists of the local administration. Together with the bonus for each specialization category, the salary rises to 3,800 lei. Those who are not functionaries have salaries of 1,080 to 1,600 lei. With such an offer, not many can be convinced to become involved, but without professionals, performance and continuity cannot be ensured.
The representatives of the local authorities asked to take concrete measures to increase the local budget revenues. Mayor of Festelita village of Stefan Voda district Nicolae Tudoreanu proposed that the income tax paid by local agricultural companies should fully remain in the local budgets so that money could be invested in infrastructure.
Attending the meeting, Premier Pavel Filip said the Government knows what problems are faced in villages and districts and common working platforms should be set up to deal with these.
CALM president Tatiana Badan said next week they will have a meeting with representatives of the State Chancellery to decide the cooperation format.
