On June 14, the citizens of Moldova will vote the new local administration. IPN News Agency set the goal to determine how the local public authorities coped during the current term that is coming to an end. Experts, opinion leaders and representatives of civil society from different settlements will assess the activity of the local authorities of the country’s districts and municipalities. IPN series: Sangerei district
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In Sangerei district, there are two towns and 68 villages that are administratively divided into 26 mayor’s offices. The population totals over 87,000.
Ludmila Prociuc, director of the Sangerei-based Center of Socio-Economic Policies “Consens”, referring to the territorial-administrative division, said there is a mayor’s office in the district that manages five settlements. The distance between settlements is rather long and it’s not very easy for the people to get to the mayor’s office to obtain a certificate or to solve problems they face. Sometimes these have to walk 5 km and then to wait to be served. Despite the difficulties encountered by the people, the mayor’s offices collect more money from taxes and manage to implement projects that are useful to the settlements.
Assessing the work of the local public authorities over the last four years, Ludmila Prociuc said the mayor’s offices were supported according to the political affiliation of the mayors. But there were also teams that managed to draw up projects and did important things for the settlements. Intense work was done in the district to supply the settlements with drinking water. The funds provided by the EU were used to replace the windows in schools and the heat in buildings was thus conserved. Playgrounds were built at nursery schools.
Ludmila Prociuc noted that there are more problems than accomplishments. The young people leave the villages, the roads are in a bad state and there are no water supply and sewerage systems. Many schools are closed and the people do not have work. To make life in villages attractive, support should be provided so that the people could start a small business – a hairdresser or a shoemaker’s shop. With the support of East Europe Foundation, a trip was organized for a group of young people to see how berries are grown in ecologic conditions and these expressed interest in such a business.
Four years ago, the election runners promised a ‘Moldova without poverty’, but life became even harder. Not everything can be solved with considerable financial resources. In the Romanian town Cluj-Napoca, the mayor’s office plants a tree in one of the parks when a child is born. The child grows and the tree grows. The parents know where the tree is and can see it and water it. If the people leave the settlement, they do not forget that there is a tree planted in their name there and can return at least to see it, stated Ludmila Prociuc.
As regards the coming local elections, Ludmila Prociuc said the voters should take into consideration not the political affiliation of the candidates, but their skills and abilities. Moldova should learn from the experience of Sweden, where those who come to power join efforts and work together for the interests of the people, not of the parties.
Mariana Galben, IPN