Why wasn’t Chisinau budget adopted and what’s next?

The City Council has twice failed to pass Chisinau’s budget in first reading. While the legislation stipulates that such documents must be adopted until December 10, last time when the budget draft was put to a vote on December 4, the Council was just one vote short of the necessary 26 to pass it. In these circumstances, Info-Prim Neo has tried to find out the reasons behind the Council’s failure and its possible effects on the residents of the capital city. A number of city councillors and City Hall officials responded to our invitation to comment. [The Communist group in the Council] didn’t endorse the bill because, as it is currently drafted, the document doesn’t give a true picture of the city’s financial capacities, said [Councillor Valeri Pavlov]. In his words, the City Hall and the councillors representing the majority coalition intend to adopt a budget below its real accumulation capacity, so that throughout the year to claim for themselves the merit of collecting extra incomes. “In ten months this year, the budget collected some 1.5 billion lei, with other 300 million to come by yearend. This means that the budget for the next year shouldn’t be lower than 1.8 billion, and not 1.3 billion as it is currently proposed”, Valeri Pavlov said. When asked what might happen if the budget is not adopted by December 10, as prescribed by law, Pavlov thinks nothing bad will happen, as the Council has experienced similar situations before. Two years ago, the budget was enacted late in March. “The institutions funded by the local budget will not be affected. As a rule, in such cases the City Council apportions each month the twelfth part of last year’s budget”, the Communist councillor explained. [Corina Fusu, the leader of the Liberal group] said the budget draft was not passed in first reading because when it comes to important issues the Communist and the Christian-Democratic group are always against. “We are about to experience serious problems in managing the city’s finances. Those who voted against the budget, voted against the interests of the ordinary citizens, of the teachers and other budget-paid categories of people”, Fusu said. [Councillor Victor Savin of Moldova Noastra Alliance] believes that behind these games are the ambitions of certain councillors who are trying to earn for themselves a political reputation of “great defenders”. “In my ten-year experience working for the municipality I’ve seen several budgets adopted. The rules are very clear, the more so as they are stipulated by the State Budget Law. As a rule, upon second reading he draft authors come with proposals to increase the planned incomes, So, the position of those who oppose the passage of the budget draft at first reading is largely unfounded”, said Victor Savin. [Alexandru Tanase, the leader of the Liberal-Democratic group] thinks that the budget was not adopted because several councillors outside the majority coalition decided to bring the situation to a deadlock, for political reasons. “The entire budgetary system is blocked, which could paralyse the work of the municipal enterprises and budget-funded institutions. This is probably part of the Communists’ plan to torpedo and weaken the local authorities”, said Tanase. According to [the leader of the Social-Democrats, Eduard Musuc], the main reason why the Council failed twice to pass the draft was the fact that some of the coalition’s councilors missed both meetings. In addition, some councilors opposed the passage without any reasonable explanation, but guided by political motives, since the passage upon first reading doesn’t necessarily mean that the draft will remain unchanged, but rather that efforts will be made to identify sources for additional incomes. Musuc was also puzzled why certain non-communist councillors, who had partnered with the majority coalition when appointing city officials, didn’t endorse the draft. He named in this respect unaffiliated Mihai Severovan and Oazu Nantoi. [Oazu Nantoi, the leader of the Humanist-Democratic faction] considers that the councillors should rule out “the apocalyptical outcomes” of a potential non-compliance with the deadline of December 10. “It is the first budget to be adopted by the new composition of the City Council. There is also the burden of the decisions inherited from the previous Council. Furthermore, there are the liberalisation initiatives by President Voronin, which will lower the incomes for the next year by nearly 400 million lei. With everything taken into account, we must reflect more in order to arrive at a joint solution as to the structure and totals of the draft”, said Oazu Nantoi. According to him, exercising democracy is not as simple as it seems and the fact the decision-making in the City Council is not as effortless as in Parliament, where a voting machine exists, doesn’t mean that Chisinau is governed by incompetent or ill-willed forces, Nantoi concluded. [Deputy Mayor Mihai Furtuna] is confident that the Chisinau’s budget for 2008 will be adopted by yearend, without any negative consequences for the budget-paid employees. The draft budget provides for expenditure of 1.37 bln lei and incomes of 1.344 bln lei. According to the General Finance Division, the deficit will be covered from the money obtained from privatisation.