Ombudswoman asks government to account for excessive spending

Ombudswoman for children's rights Tamara Plamadeala demands that Prime Minister Vlad Filat explain why they provided excessive financing to the special school for children with behavioral difficulties working in Solonet village of Soroca district. According to her, the allocation of over 2 million lei this year to this institution with only 25 children and 58 employees is unjustified at a time when the situation at the given school is unsatisfactory. Tamara Plamadeala made related statements in a news conference on Thursday, Info-Prim Neo reports. “In 2009, this institution housed about 50 children, but had a budget of over 1 million lei. This year, the number of students is lower, but the budget was increased. Why? I monitored the situation and I saw that the school employees' work is not efficient. This money did not produce results. The children continue to commit crimes when they are discharged from the school,” said Plamadeala. The ombudswoman considers that if this money is distributed to the settlements from where those children come, there will be created more possibilities for integrating them into the community so that they do not commit other offenses and are taken to the penitentiary in Lipcani after the school. “International experts monitored the institution and identified a number of irregularities there. “The school has a farm with 28 hectares of land where the children should work four hours a day. In fact, they work there all day long and are not remunerated,” Plamadeala said. According to the ombudswoman, a child must stay at that school for six months to three years, but it happens that some of them remain there for six years and cultivate the land. Not only children who committed offenses are brought to the school, but also vagrants and children who do not go to school. “The 25 children are deprived of freedom, but they should be not,” she said. “The school's administration considers that these are not violations. Everyone expects that the school will be closed, but time passes and it continues to work, while the authorities do nothing to solve the problems and help those children.”