Only 1/5 of the applications for social assistance in the Republic of Moldova are accompanied by social questionnaires. The authorities offer these allocations, but do not hurry to determine how the recipients of social assistance spend this money, Lilia Ioniță, of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC), stated in a press club meeting staged by the Journalistic Investigations Center, IPN reports.
In the recent past, the number of persons who receive social assistance has increased, as did the size of this allowance, but it is not clear what criteria the authorities used when they took these decisions. The mayor’s office could engage the recipients of social assistance in activities of community interest so that the villages are cleaner, but this is not done, stated Lilia Ioniță.
In the meeting, there was presented the experience of five pubic organizations that monitored the provision of social assistance in the Republic of Moldova.
Liuba Stavinschi, of the Rezina public association “Nufărul”, said many of the social assistants do not have studies in the field or in related spheres, such as medicine, psychology or teaching, so that the social assistance not always reaches those who need this support. In a village, she could not obtain information about the distribution of social assistance because the employees of the mayor’s office there were in quarantine due to COVID-19.
Eugenia Roșca, of the Telenești public association ”Concordia”, noted that 12 persons in Telenești district receive social assistance at home. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was hard to check these persons. In Telenești, about 4,600 persons or over 6% of the country’s population get social assistance. Among them are persons who do not want to work.
Diana Grosu, of the Association for Human Rights “Lex 21”, noted that not all the recipients of social assistance have low incomes. Therefore, the social assistance could have been bribed as these allowances not always reach the socially deprived persons.
The representatives of the CAPC formulated recommendations for the authorities, urging to review the welfare indicators for providing social assistance set in 2008 and entrusting also the mayor with the task of identifying those who need such assistance, not only the social assistant.
The monitoring was carried out as part of the project “Social Assistance in the Republic of Moldova, between Efficiency and Integrity” that is implemented by the CAPC with support from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
