The MPs of Șor Party requested to invite Minister of Education and Research Anatolie Topală and Minister of Finance Dumitru Budianschi to Parliament for being questioned. The MPs joined the managers of educational institutions of Orhei district and representatives of the local public administration, who announced a Japanese-style strike. According to the MPs, the two ministers should come and tell about the financial situation in education now that the educational institutions incur much larger costs than the amounts allocated to them from the 2022 state budget, IPN reports.

In a news conference, MP Marina Tauber said the problem invoked by those from Orhei is related to educational institutions’ costs that are larger than the allocations. Following the rise in natural gas prices, the products and services grew more expensive.

The educational institutions swiftly used up the financial resources, including those allocated for development and maintenance, by paying the heat bills. Now the education managers from Orhei justly ask to be allocated additional funds for covering the differences and the incurred costs.

Even if the problem was communicated several days ago, the authorities, in particular the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education, didn’t react appropriately, making only unclear comments. “Moreover, we heard an absolutely scandalous statement of Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița, who assured us that the problem does not exist. We therefore insistently demand that the ministers should be invited to today’s sitting of Parliament to explain the situation and how they intend to deal with it. We realize that this problem refers not only to Orhei district,” stated Marina Tauber.

The request about the questioning was also made at the beginning of the Parliament siting, but was short of votes to be accepted.

Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița on Wednesday said the educational institutions will receive additional allocation so that they can pay their bills. She noted that the Ministry of Finance is in contact with local public administrations and education institutions. “We will allocate an additional 1 billion lei for the public energy bill. More than 700 million lei of this amount will go to cover the increasing utility costs of educational institutions”, the prime minister said.