The reform of local public administration is necessary to increase the capacity of town halls to attract and utilize European funds designated for regional development. This is the opinion of expert Andrei Curăraru, expressed during the public debate “The political and economic context of the APL reform”, organized by the IPN Press Agency. According to him, a village with less than 3 thousand inhabitants faces difficulties in identifying a viable economic model, and the development of areas such as rural tourism implies investments in infrastructure.

According to Andrei Curararu, the limited capacity of some town halls to attract and manage European funds represents an obstacle in exploiting external financing opportunities, and the amalgamation of localities could contribute to overcoming this problem.

“The APL reform is necessary to prepare town halls to absorb European funds. Most of the European funds are intended for regional development. Today, a village with less than 3 thousand inhabitants does not know what economic model it can propose. Even for rural tourism, infrastructure is needed, and infrastructure requires money,” explained the expert in public policy and security.

Referring to the creation of three regions – North, Center and South, Andrei Curararu mentioned that the development of regional centers is justified by the need to ensure a balanced development of the country.

“Regarding the level II LAP, I believe people understand and I’ve seen that CALM also supports the Government’s position to create three regions. Regional centers have their own logic. We cannot afford to have the Republic of Chisinau instead of the Republic of Moldova. Therefore, there is logic in the development of regional centers,” the expert declared.

Regarding potential layoffs among the employees of the current regional councils, Curararu emphasized that maintaining bureaucratic structures just to preserve certain jobs should not dictate the administrative reorganization process.

“We cannot operate under the logic of preserving bureaucrats just to ensure their jobs. There are already technical possibilities to provide the same services, of the same quality, but in an electronic format. Probably, in some rural localities, there is no understanding of this and people need to be taught how to access these digital services. The Unified Centers for the Provision of Public Services (UCPPS) will offer the same services that were offered before. If we only think about what inefficient bureaucrats will do, then we will never solve the problem of work productivity,” the expert further stated.

Disclaimer: This material was prepared by the IPN Press Agency, within the project “Local Public Administration Reform in Dialogue”, funded by the Ministry of Culture from the Media Subsidy Fund.