Prime Minister Pavel Filip requested the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the cases of dubious management of the farmland owned by agricultural education and research institutions. The situation of the given institutions was discussed in a meeting of Cabinet officials on October 25, IPN reports, quoting the Government’s press service.
“We have institutions that simply rob the state. They ask money from the budget and spend it inefficiently. The incomes they earn from the owned farmland are equal to zero. Today we can invest large sums of money there, but the result will not improve. On the contrary, the disaster will aggravate,” stated Pavel Filip.
The allocations intended for these institutions total about 312 million lei. The farmland owned by agricultural education and research institutions are over 11,000 heaters in area and the largest part of this land was transferred to experimental technological and training stations created in 2008 that are now insolvent.
Among other problems, the Premier noted the training of specialists that are not in demand in the economy, teaching using outdated equipment, the large number of technical employees compared with teaching personnel and the researches with a low impact. Specialists needed in agriculture are not trained and the employment rate among agricultural college graduates is under 30%.
Pavel Filip ordered to constitute a working group that would suggest solutions for overcoming the critical situation in the field. This will have to work out a plan for restructuring the network of agricultural vocational schools, colleges, universities and research institutions and to notify the Prosecutor’s Office so that this investigates the insolvent experimental technological and training stations that manage the land owned by agricultural education and research institutions.
Currently, there are 41 agricultural education and research institutions in Moldova.
