Moldovan Mayors Urged to Press for Continued Reforms
Moldovan mayors participating in the USAID Local Government Reform Project (LGRP) were recently commended by Brock D. Bierman, Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor for the Agency’s Bureau for Europe and Eurasia, and urged to push for continued progress.
“Local reforms have powerful consequences not only at the community level,” he told those gathered in Chisinau for the LGRP’s 11th Quarterly Mayor’s Meeting on June 29. “But they also have an aggregate effect at the regional and national levels.”
Moldova’s system of governance remains highly centralized. Local public officials have very limited autonomy in making decisions for their communities, which are frequently subject to regional and national scrutiny and approval. One of the biggest obstacles to greater eater local autonomy is related to the issue of decentralization of finances. Local communities have very little if any say as to how budget funds are allocated, and there is a lack of consistency between the amount of money many communities collect and send to the central government and the amount of money they are subsequently allocated.
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| Bierman (left) extends encouragement and support to mayors effecting reforms at
the local level in Moldova |
LGRP is an $11 million project which was initiated in 2000 to strengthen local government in Moldova through synchronized training provided by three distinct specialist teams in their respective area of expertise: “Democracy and Governance” (D&G), “Fiscal Improvements” (FI) and “Municipal Services”(MS). The D&G team organizes and supervises community development strategic planning, including providing guidance as to how to successfully conduct public hearings. Then FI team provides basic software and technical assistance to local public accountants and economists as pertains to the use of basic computer and accounting programs, in addition to providing partner communities with Integrated Management Financial Software (IMFS) and assistance as to how to properly install and use such software. MS team provides LGRP partner communities with technical training and assistance in improving the quality and efficiency of delivering public municipal services to citizens in their communities, as well as assisting with the design and implementation of demonstration projects, which are selected for implementation on a competitive basis based on priorities the community allocated in its strategic plan. To date, the MS team has supervised the successful implementation of 70 projects, 55 projects are in the process of completion in different stages, and 25 projects are expected to be selected between now and the close of LGRP in July 2007. Requests for projects far exceed the availability of funds.
LGRP currently works with 120 partner communities, each chosen through a competitive selection process. As the number of partner communities expanded, LGRP instituted quarterly mayor’s meetings—which have grown in both size and popularity—to deliver in-depth information on key topics of interest and create an open forum to facilitate discussion and exchange of best practices among participants.
A new Ministry of Local Public Administration was recently created as a response to a November 2005 report issued by the Congress of Europe which critiqued and made recommendations for local government reform efforts in Moldova. One of the recommendations was that the Government of Moldova set up a special ministry that would be responsible for dealing in a coordinated manner “with all matters relating to local authorities, as well as elaboration of policies related to reforms in this field.” Mr. Vitalie Vrabie, the former mayor of Ungheni—a LGRP partner community—was appointed by president Voronin to head the Ministry.
Having recently observed several demonstration projects personally during his Moldova visit, Bierman lauded the mayors on the hard work and dedication that they had invested in improving the lives of citizens in their communities, stressing their pivotal role in Moldova’s ability to build a prosperous future.
“As local government officials you are an important part of this process. Unless you are committed to greater transparency and democratic reform at the local level, Moldova’s dreams of true European integration will most likely remain just that – dreams.”
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