On June 14, the citizens of Moldova will vote the new local administration. IPN News Agency set the goal to determine how the local public authorities coped during the current term that is coming to an end. Experts, opinion leaders and representatives of civil society from different settlements will assess the activity of the local authorities of the country’s districts and municipalities. IPN series: Falesti district
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Falesti district consists of 74 villages and one town, administered by 33 mayor’s offices. The total population of the district is over 90,000.
Alexandru Fusa, manager of the Falesti-based association “Cutezatorul” (”The daring”), said the current territorial-administrative format is not suitable for the small mayor’s offices because the small budgets do not allow working efficiently. A solution is to switch over to counties because within the previous format there were about 20 mayor’s offices in Falesti district and they were more efficient. It is even more difficult where there are no economic entities that would bring incomes into the local budget. Despite the small budgets, the mayor’s offices must cover the costs for maintaining the institutions managed by the local authorities and there is no money left for developing the settlements.
Asked how the local authorities coped during the last four years, Alexandru Fusa said some of the mayors received assistance mainly from the parties of which they form part, while others, who enjoy less political support, had to apply to projects with foreign financing. Those who applied achieved results, while the mayors who waited for the money to come from somewhere didn’t do much. Among the mayor’s offices that implemented successful projects are those of Sarata Veche, Navarnet, Calugar, Calinesti, and Chetris. Social development projects were implemented in each of these settlements.
According to him, the local administration can be efficient if there are enough financial resources. A solution is for the mayors to attract economic entities to the settlements. Water supply projects are mainly needed as 80% of the district’s settlements haven’t been yet connected to the water supply system.
As to the promises made in the previous election campaign, Alexandru Fusa said there were mayors who didn’t make promises, but implemented projects, while others promised a lot, but did nothing. The people are sick and tired of lies and will no longer vote for the parties that they supported until now because these didn’t meet their expectations.
Alina Marin, IPN
