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| Veaceslav Craciun | |
Last year was the year of the public administration reform in Moldova. There were optimized the bodies of the power, including the local governmental departments, not only the ministries. Several regional centers were set up instead of the district bodies. The new aspect of the administrative subordination of institutions caused the dissatisfaction of the authorities of Gagauz-Yeri, which regarded the reform as a limitation of their powers. On the other hand, the authorities of the neighboring districts, which weren’t consulted by the Government, also expressed their dissatisfaction.
Reform without a dialog
The reform of the State Tax Inspectorate took place at the start of 2017. The Inspectorate’s name was changed into the State Tax Service and the district bodies were replaced with four subdivisions of the State Tax Service. One of these subdivisions, which embraces all the districts in southern Moldova, is based in Comrat. However, instead of the apparent improvement in the administrative capacity, the given reform for Gagauz-Yeri meant the loss of the own fiscal division as the administration of the new subdivision does not form part of the Autonomous Territorial Unit’s executive committee and reports directly to the Ministry of Finance.
This enabled the People’s Assembly of Gagauz-Yeri to file an application to Parliament whereby it requested to include an article about the fiscal service of the ATU in the draft law on the State Tax Service. This should have defined the subordination relations, procedures for naming the administration and the powers of the Gagauz clone of the tax service. But the reform was done as it was planned by the Government.
About two weeks ago, the authorities of Cimislia district examined the unfavorable consequences of the placing in Comrat of the southern regional treasury. Earlier, the local authorities had a treasury in their district. Now the mayors and accountants have to travel to Comrat.
“Our opinion was neglected. Union Fenosa and the tax service are based in Comrat. Only the social assistance division and the social insurance house remained to be moved to Comrat,” mayor of Javgur village Gheorghe Vacarciuc stated in a meeting.
The representatives of the local authorities also noted that the officials in Comrat do not know the Romanian language, while the accounts in Cimislia do not speak Russian. This generates difficulties as the documents addressed from Comrat to the mayor’s offices are in Russian.
The situation concerning the optimization of the treasuries does not refer directly to the powers of Gagauz-Yeri, but reveals the deficiencies of the reform - it is implemented without taking into consideration the opinion of the local authorities.
The given problem was examined in detail in the presentation of the monitoring report produced by experts of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” to see how the Government implemented the public administration reform.
Report author Viorel Pirvan, expert in political matters, underlined that the Government didn’t consider it is opportune to follow the path of dialog.
“We ascertained that a large volume of information wasn’t made public or was published on several Internet sources. Public hearings imply the involvement of all the sides interested in the reform,” he said.
Administrative center and political autonomy
It is another matter if the aforementioned examples reveal an intentional policy of the central authorities. All the shortcomings and negative reactions are rather due to the lack of consultations with the local authorities as no systemic and consistent approach is seen on the part of Chisinau. Formally, the Government showed its interest in the local communities, but didn’t make effort to identify their interests.
By the way, the reduction in the number of mayor’s offices is one of the next stages of the reform. Heated discussions on the issue between Comrat and Chisinau can be already anticipated. Under the law on the legal status of Gagauz-Yeri, the People’s Assembly has the power to take decisions on matters concerning the territorial-administrative division of Gagauzia. For these discussions to take the form of consultations, without the use of political accusations, they should start as soon as possible.
When attempts are made to present Comrat as a capital city of southern Moldova, the locals are probably flattered. But the given situation generates the reasonable bewilderment of Cahul. This town has the potential to be the administrative center of southern Moldova. This is inopportune overlapping that brings no pleasure to the sides.
Gagauz-Yeri is a political autonomous unit. It should be clear that any re-formation of the local governmental bodies that will not coincide with the borders managed by the ATU will lead to dissatisfaction. How can this be avoided? The answer is evident – by separating the regional subdivisions of the governmental departments – one for the southern districts and another one for Gagauz-Yeri.
This principle already found a reflection in the regional development strategy, which provides that the development regions North, Chisinau, Center, South and, separately, Gagauz-Yeri, will be created in Moldova. The efficiency of such a move from the viewpoint of the administrative and financial optimization can (and should) be discussed. This would be reasonable from political perspective as many speculations and excessive tensions could be thus avoided.
Veaceslav Craciun, Comrat
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