Premier displeased that local authorities do not use money available in accounts

Revenues to the budget are increasing despite this year’s severe drought, Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev said at the Government’s meeting on October 3. However, he is dissatisfied with the fact that the local authorities do not use the money available in accounts. The Premier stressed the importance of improving the budget fulfillment practices and the responsibility of every public agency apart. He criticized a number of districts for their activity as they have tens of millions of lei in accounts, as the Premier says, but do not use them according to the necessities. The Premier said that among the territorial-administrative units “with money in accounts” are the districts of Cahul and Calarasi, as well as the municipality of Chisinau, which has about 273 mln lei available. Vasile Tarlev expressed his indignation at the fact that the Chisinau administration does not allocate money for renovating the water and sewer systems, for improving the activity of police etc. The Prime Minister ordered the creation of a working group headed by Deputy Prime Minister Zinaida Grecianii that would examine the situation and make the responsible local authorities observe the fiscal discipline and use the resources appropriately. “The money should generate money, quickly and efficiently,” Tarlev said. Minister of Finance Mihai Pop said at the meeting that the state budget incomes over January-September 2007 added up to about 9.52 bln lei, a 1.7% increase compared the amount planned in the Budget Law and by 1.89 bln lei or 24.8% more compared with the corresponding period of 2006. The basic revenues to the state budget totalled 8.39 bln lei, by 3.1% more than projected or by 1.82 bln lei or 27.8% more than last year. The average daily collections during January-September were 45.1 mln lei, as against 34.56 mln lei in the corresponding period last year. A sum of 9.79 bln lei from the state budget was used to cover different expenses. This is 89.5% of the expenditure projected for this period. Compared with January-September 2006, the expenses rose by 2.74 bln lei or 39%.