Political row delays Chișinău's municipal budget
Almost eight months after the legal deadline for its approval, Chișinău's municipal budget remains unapproved.
While councilors from the PAS party state they are open to voting for a "budget for the people" and have called for a resumption of dialogue with the city hall's executive branch, representatives of the institution claim that opposition councilors, including those from PAS, are boycotting the process and using the issue for political campaigning.
In a press briefing, councilors from the PAS faction on the Chișinău Municipal Council (CMC) accused the administration led by Ion Ceban of a lack of concrete action and reiterated that their party is ready to support a budget built in the interest of the city's residents.
"The PAS faction has always been involved and has shown that it is a constructive team, with the intention of solving people's problems. The PAS faction always calculates and weighs the benefit for Chișinău families, repaired kindergartens, and modernized streets," said faction vice-president Dumitru Ivanov.
The PAS councilor also criticized the current municipal administration, accusing it of turning public projects into propaganda tools. "People want to see progress in the city, without empty words and without what Ion Ceban is doing now: self-promotion, drone photos, greenish leaflets, and political advertising on trolleybuses," Ivanov added.
Among the PAS's requests are the allocation of 80 million lei for social compensation, 66 million lei for the personal assistant function, 50 million lei for extended-hours groups in schools, 60 million for new schools and kindergartens in 2025, and 40 million for the purchase of public transport units.
In response, Natalia Ixari, communications advisor to Mayor Ion Ceban, told Teleradio-Moldova that the budget project had been placed on the agenda seven times and that all legitimate proposals from the factions had been included in the final version. "Even though the PAS members have repeatedly claimed that the budget doesn't include the proposals submitted by the factions, I want to state that all legitimate proposals falling under the Chișinău City Hall's jurisdiction have been included in this budget."
Ixari accused the PAS faction of a lack of political will. "There has never been political will; there has only been a desire to stand at the podium and make declarations, blame someone, and campaign, but not to prioritize people's needs and wishes," she stated.
In the absence of an agreement, Chișinău continues to operate on a provisional budget, approved by the general mayor's directive beginning January 2. This budget provides for revenues of 8.17 billion lei and expenditures of 8.75 billion lei, with an estimated deficit of 580 million.
Previous attempts to approve the budget failed due to a lack of quorum, or because the PAS and PSRM factions abstained from the vote.
It is worth noting that the municipal budget was also approved late last year, only on August 1, 2024, despite the legal deadline being December 2023.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
