Cabinet members participate in enlarged meeting of Administrative Board of Congress of Local Authorities from Moldova

Chisinau, 18 November /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita, along with the entire cabinet of ministers, today participated in an enlarged meeting of the Administrative Board of the Congress of Local Authorities from Moldova (CALM). Attending the event were more than 100 mayors who came from all Moldova’s districts, who are   members of this Board too, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.   

In her greeting speech, the PM referred to the present problems, as well as the need to strengthen the dialogue between the central public authorities and the local ones, in order to find solutions on all segments.  

„I am happy that, after a break of six years, we have managed to resume discussions on the platform of the parity commission for decentralization, where we ruled to create 7 working groups due to act in detail on certain subjects, such as public money, infrastructure and heritage, health, education and improvement of public services. We are a team and we must work together, in order to improve the people’s living. We will continue the practice to hold cabinet meetings in the territory, which brings an important territorial and local dimension in the work of all government’s portfolios,’’ the prime minister said.     

Natalia Gavrilita enumerated a string of actions undertaken by the cabinet in the last 15 months: ‘’We have managed so far to start efficient programmes, such as the European Village – in which most of you are beneficiaries, and to establish clear-cut rules where necessary. I mean the situation concerning the peasant farms and their erasing from registers, the issue of value shares, the law on the regime of water basins, through which we clearly established to which authorities they belong. We had a good discussion with you also regarding the tax for the use of roads or removing the ceilings for local taxes.’’      

Also, the PM touched upon the priorities on the agenda of the cabinet of ministers, which include also the digitalization of the public services for the settlements of Moldova. ‘’I think that you have already made sure about the benefits of the Single Centres of Providing Public Services, those who have them in settlements. We are set to open another 60 such centres, so that the citizens can access digital services they need, without going to the functional centre. Besides, we work now on several important subjects due to regard namely you – the increase of salaries within the local public authorities (APL) and the strategy of reformation of the central and local public administration. We will come up with a string of serious stimuli for the voluntary amalgamation and increase in the level of the local public authorities,’’ the prime minister also said.      

Gavrilita specified that 200 civil servants of the local public authorities would benefit from trainings in the management of European projects, organized by the National Institute of Administration from Romania.    

In the end, Natalia Gavrilita called for unity and solidarity: ‘’We live in a period marked by crises; yet, by working together on concrete subjects dealing with the citizen’s well-being, we will everybody benefit and will become stronger following these crises.’’     

Participants in the dialogue between the government and the members of the CALM Administrative Board set forth the most pressing subjects which need to be tackled in a coordinated way and efficiently. Among them, there are: the lack of staff in public institutions, low-value public procurements, consolidation of the local financial autonomy, decentralization and APL’s reform.       

CALM president Tatiana Badan welcomed the resumption of the inter-institutional dialogue and suggested the prioritization of the problems faced by the local authorities, so that viable solutions are identified for each field separately.    

„When we speak about efficiency, quality and better services for citizens, we know well that these goals can be achieved only if we have a permanent dialogue with the central authorities. In this respect, we welcome the resumption of the work of the parity commission and we want this platform to be functional. We must take joint efforts, if we want concrete results to be achieved,’’ the CALM president stressed.     

Photo: Government