After the last administrative reform implemented in 2003 by the communist government, a lot of myths appeared in connection with this. One of these myths is that district administration should exist to offer services to the population. The authors of a new Sic! article, which is accompanied by an animation clip, say the average administrative costs per capita in the smallest three districts of Moldova is 2.6 times higher than in the largest three districts.
The article says the functions of the district authorities, defined in the Law on the Local Public Administration, are general and do not have a direct impact on the people. The necessity of these institutions is artificially inflated, mainly for political reasons. The ordinary people receive no certificate or another document directly from these institutions. If the district authorities disappear, the ordinary people will be deprived of no service from which they benefit at present.
The territory of Moldova is divided into territorial-administrative units: districts (raions), towns and villages. Moldova has 35 territorial-administrative units of the second level, which are covered by the 2017 state budget: 32 districts, Chisinau municipality, Balti municipality and ATU Gagauzia. Moldova’s budget for 2017 comes to 8.228 billion lei. The average district budget is of over 192 million lei. The administrative costs represent about 1/3 of the district budgets. The big differences in population, number of mayor’s offices, area and budgetary costs directly affect the efficiency of the management of territorial-administrative units.
The smaller the territorial-administrative unit is, the lower its capacity to produce value is and, evidently, the administrative costs per capita increase. Calculations show that the average administrative costs per capita in the smallest three districts of Moldova - Basarabeasca, Soldanesti and Dubasari - is 2.6 times higher than in the largest three districts - Hancesti, Cahul and Orhei. The same proportions are relevant to specific public services provided, such as education and social protection.
The Sic! authors say that even if the territorial-administrative reform was declared a priority, it is implemented with delay owing to major political costs. A large part of the local party leaders will remain without jobs and will no longer be so useful to the managers from Chisinau. These costs are well known given the experience gained after the reform done in 1999, when the territory was divided more homogenously and the units had a similar population, of 260,000-270,000. Thus, the current territorial-administrative division is inefficient and generates additional costs for each taxpayer.
The full article in Romanian can be read on sic.md. Sic! is a project implemented by IPN News Agency with support from Soros Foundation Moldova.
