The Party of Action and Solidarity’s group from the Chisinau Municipal Council, together with personal assistants from Chisinau, mounted a protest in front of the Chisinau City Hall to express their dissatisfaction with the mayor general’s decision “to no longer conclude contracts with personal assistants”. The protesters demanded that the mayor should provide support for personal assistants and children with special needs who until now received financial support from the Chisinau Municipal Council, provided from the municipal budget, IPN reports.
The PAS councilors said that “Ion Ceban decided that he will dismiss a part of the personal assistants in Chisinau and will halve the salaries of those who will be kept”. Zinaida Popa noted that a few days ago, the mayor took particular decisions that directly influence the lives of 2,000 parents who have children with special needs. According to the PAS councilor, by such decisions the mayor intends to liquidate the personal assistance service. Zinaida Popa proposed holding a roundtable meeting with the participation of all municipal councilors on January 12, at 3 p.m., to address the subject of social assistance.
Victoria Șoproncu, the mother of a young man with special needs, who is employed as a personal assistant, asked not to have her rights violated. “The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities says that the authorities cannot lower our standard of living,” said the personal assistant.
Municipal councilor Lilia Scutar asked to review the decision regarding the social service “Personal Assistance” so that people who care for children with special needs have a decent living.
In its reaction, the Chisinau City Hall said that the PAS MPs did not support the amendment providing for the allocation of money for personal assistants and it is cynical for PAS to protest after they themselves cut the funding. City Hall officials informed about this situation and this problem and Commission for Emergency Situations took a decision. After the Government implemented the law to Amend a number of normative documents, by which the reform of the social assistance system “RESTART” was approved, the minimum package of social services was abrogated. As a result, starting with 2024, these services were excluded from the system of co-financing from the special purpose transfers of the Population Support Fund and the State Budget. At the same time, tasks in the social sector, including regional ones, were assigned to Chisinau municipality without providing allocations to cover the costs incurred in the process of carrying these out,” wrote the officials of the Chisinau City Hall.
The City Hall will ask Parliament that 50 percent of the capital’s contributions to the state budget should remain in Chisinau. “A petition will also be launched in this regard, calling on the residents of the city to support this initiative, which should later become a bill. Today, Chisinau contributes 23 billion lei to the national budget and only 2.8 billion lei or 13 percent return, plus special purpose transfers,” said the City Hall.
