Even if Moldova allocates police funding similar as percentage of the Gross Domestic Product to the countries of the region, the police continue to rank last by the efficiency of the security and public order system. For the situation to be changed, the mechanism for spending the money invested in the police sector should be reviewed, considers Iurie Morcotylo, of the independent think tank “Expert-Grup”, who analyzed the public budget police funding during the last few years.
In a news conference at IPN, the expert said the public reports that the Police in Moldova cost more than Health and Education taken together are erroneous. In 2000-2015, the public budget spending for the police rose ten times in nominal terms (from 155.1 million to 1.5 billion lei) and three times in real terms. Despite this apparently impressive growth, the police funding as share of the GDP was almost constant: 1.2%-1.4%. This is comparable to the values in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. For comparison, investments in education in Moldova represent 7-8% of the GDP.
When comparing the spending for the police, the number of serving police officers is also taken into account. In 2004-2014, the number of police officers in Moldova per 100,000 people was almost equal to the average value in the countries of the region - 369 as opposed to the average of 335 police officers in the Central and Eastern European countries.
The expert said most of the funds intended for the police during the past ten years were used to improve the crime situation, even if not in all the crime categories. The murders declined from 11.3 cases per 100,000 people in 2006 to 6.5 cases in 2016. Instead, the number of less serious offenses increased.
The contradictory tendencies in crime fighting point to the slow pace of reforms. According to Iurie Morcotylo, the performance of the police was poorer because the objectives set out in the reform policy were achieved only partially. The progress in ensuring transparency in the police sector was mediocre. UN data about the number of police officers in Moldova were used because not even this information could be found on the Ministry of the Interior’s website. Greater transparency is needed, including as regards spending in the police sector. There should be also analyzed the causality and the efforts made not only by the Ministry of the Interior so as to decrease the crime rate and increase the people’s confidence in the police.
