This opinion was expressed in social networks by a well-known expert in the field of real estate valuation and urban development, Dmitri Tărăburca. He noted that the decision that will determine the fate of the country for decades is being hastily formalized in the high offices of Chisinau. At the same time, the main motive is to optimize the number of mayoralties for the sake of “economic expediency”. If a village has less than a thousand inhabitants, the local government is recognized as an “excessive luxury”, notes Tărăburke.
“Let’s understand why this is actually being done,” he wonders. – In countries where such reform has yielded results – in Poland or Scandinavia – it was carried out only after giving an answer to the question: what function does each particular territory fulfill? What role does this village play in the country’s economy? Is it a logistics hub? A processing center? Is it a tourist cluster?”.
Therefore, before carrying out administrative reform, it is necessary to first create a “master plan” for the development of a particular settlement and territory, to identify growth points and transportation arteries, and only then to adjust the bureaucratic apparatus in the quantitative and functional sense to these tasks.
In Moldova, the administrative reform is being started without these preparatory steps and careful study of the issue, the expert states. “The classic mistake of PAS is to do first and then think why. This is the managerial handwriting: first cut the structure, and then wonder why life stops on the “optimized” territory. When you remove a town hall in a village without offering it a new economic function, you are not saving the budget. You just turn off the lights in this part of the country,” said Dmitri Tărăburke.
He emphasized that the question is not how many mayoralties we have. The question is different: what are we building – a living, connected country or an efficient, optimized desert?
Everything can be optimized. Except for the lack of meaning. Orders may speed up downsizing, but only meanings make reforms sustainable. Without an understanding of why we need this particular village in 10 years, any reform becomes a mere mop-up operation
