The government proposes voluntary amalgamation, as the first stage of the administrative reform. Prime Minister: "It's good that it happens before the local elections"
The Moldovan government proposes voluntary amalgamation, as the first stage of the local public administration reform. Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița claims that, although the process of administrative reform is a long one, a voluntary amalgamation of smaller localities into larger ones could take place before this year's local elections. The decision to join this process remains, however, on the part of the local public administrations, states the head of the Government.
"We developed the Public Administration Reform Strategy. It is about both central and local reform. We have been discussing the local component for a long time. (...) At the first stage, it is voluntary amalgamation. This will not be done in a year. The localities have to decide, that's why it's a voluntary amalgamation, it's not imposed by the central government, and the rethinking of powers may take time, but it would be good to happen before the local elections, so that there is this coordination", said the prime minister Natalia Gavrilița in an interview for Nord News.
Natalia Gavrilița claims that the reform of local public administration would contribute to increasing the capacities of local public authorities of the first level to effectively provide local public services. Moreover, the prime minister of the country assures that the central government will support the localities that will decide to amalgamate into larger localities, including through salary incentives, road reconstruction or infrastructure projects, which will stimulate the administrative growth of the localities.
"Our main goal is to ensure that we have localities capable enough to attract and implement projects from European funds. This has been a problem in virtually all countries that have gone through this process of European integration. We have to prepare for it. At the same time, we have to move through a social consensus and that is why we come up with the concept of voluntary amalgamation. On the other hand, we will come up with a rethinking of powers between districts, localities, and the central government,” the prime minister added.
Moldova 1 recalls that the Government has recently developed and published the concept of the Public Administration Reform Strategy of the Republic of Moldova 2023-2030. The new strategy includes five areas of interventions: the management of the public function; public entities; the substantiation, coordination and implementation system of public policies and strategic planning; digitization of public services; simplification and debureaucratization; local public administration. According to the prime minister, the first consultations within the joint commission for decentralisation started on January 13, this year.
