The year 2019 will be complex not only owing to the parliamentary elections, but also due to the local elections, especially because many mayors do not want to run even if they gained rich experience and are effective in finding solutions to people’s problems, stated Viorel Furdui, executive director of the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CALM).

“I think in the conditions of the Republic of Moldova, the mayors are an important treasure as we know very well how hard it is to achieve such nice results and we should not lose them,” Viorel Furdui was quoted by IPN as saying.

According to him, in 2018 the local authorities worked at lot, dealt with many challenges and used many opportunities to implement different projects. There were implemented many programs, including governmental ones. “The impression is that this year more money was invested in local road infrastructure, water supply, street lighting and the LPAs devoted a lot of time to achieving these objectives. On the one hand, there were many possibilities of improving local infrastructure and the quality of services,” stated Viorel Furdui, adding that on the other hand, there is a tense atmosphere inside the local public authorities owing to the relations with the state inspection bodies and to the political pressure exerted in the recent period.

The CALM executive director noted the new salary system was adopted very swiftly and without being consulted. “We regret a lot we didn’t manage to persuade the decision makers to devote more attention to other categories of functionaries of the LPAs, such as secretaries, accountants, cadastral engineers who are now less motivated by the new salary system,” he stated.

Viorel Furdui also said 2018 was a good one as there was no week when a new partnership or project between the LPAs of Moldova and Romina or other countries wasn’t signed. Important partnerships were established with the Association of Towns of Romania and the relations with the Association of Communes of Romania, with the associations of Latvia and others were strengthened. The CALM has a special relationship with the Council of Europe. “When particular tensions appeared internally, we had to react and European institutions had the decision and involvement power by monitoring and by producing reports, resolutions,” he said.