Minister of Local Public Administration Appointed

The Ungheni’s mayor Vitalie Vrabie will be the first one to hold the office of Local Public Administration Minister (LPAM). He was appointed to this position by a decree of the head of state, Vladimir Voronin. Vitalie Vrabie, born in 1964, is at the moment the Mayor of Ungheni municipality. He graduated the Agricultural Institute of Chisinau, Management School of Moscow, and Public Administration Academy of Chisinau. He is the chairman of the Association of Mayors and Local Communities of Moldova, the head of Moldovan delegation to the Congress of European Local and Regional Authorities. The parliament approved the creation of the Local Public Administration Ministry on 16 February 2006. After many debates, the law was approved due to the votes of Communist MPs and some opposition MPs. Some of the deputies were against the creation of the new structure, saying that LPAM will become a centralization lever for the local public administration.