A number of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) intend to leave the system due to financial reasons. Minister Adrian Efros said that the institution he leads is experiencing a shortage of staff, especially within the Border Police and the General Police Inspectorate. According to the official, the salary of an entry level police officer is 11,000 lei.
The minister admitted that the entity he leads doesn’t have enough employees and a series of positions are vacant. The modest increase in the salaries of police officers cannot prevent the employees from leaving the system.
“The Ministry of Internal Affairs is the largest ministry in terms of the number of employees. There are vacancies in different subdivisions. If we refer to the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, here the staff is 100% filled. At the General Police Inspectorate, we have vacancies. At the Border Police, there are also vacancies. In discussions with colleagues who intend to leave the system, they invoked financial reasons. At the beginning of the year, the reference value of police officers was increased from 1,900 to 2,300. That is, the salary increased by 1,000 lei. For an entry level policeman, the salary increased from 10,000 to 11,000 lei. The higher the length of service, the higher the salaries,” Adrian Efros stated in the talk show “Resumé” on RliveTV channel.
According to the minister, new salary increases for MIA employees are not foreseen for now, but these will still benefit from one-off payments and bonuses.
“There is still a need for interventions in the social field so that when the MIA employee comes to work, they are sure that their family is well, has a decent life and this will contribute a lot to reducing acts of corruption. Now, as we have a series of vacancies, that money can be redirected to provide employees with bonuses or one-time payments. We want salary increases, but this does not depend on the will of Minister Efros or the Prime Minister. We start from an available budget framework. When we have a strong economy, when everyone pays taxes, when we all contribute to the state budget, then we will have amounts available to increase wages. It doesn’t go to the unwillingness to increase salaries, but to budgetary austerity,” said the official.
In October 2023, within the “Bonus for Moldova” program, a one-time payment of 5,000 lei was provided to over 10,000 employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – police officers and carabineers.
