Authorities hope for voluntary association
Thus, an important element of the reform, according to the government, should be unified service centers. According to Aleksei Buzu, secretary general of the government, they will be expanded, especially where mayoralties unite.
“Within these centers, 120 public services are now provided,” he said on the air of a TV channel. – We will work hard to provide 600 state services in these centers by the end of the year. Citizens will be able to utilize both local and NCSS, ASP, cadastre, etc. services. This will provide better, faster and multiple services to them without having to travel long distances. Public services will come to them in their community.”
He also noted that voluntary pooling is a choice that should be made at the local level, where people know best what solutions work for them.
“We rely very much on voluntary association because we believe that only local elected officials, communities know best how they could come together, build capacity and strength for the future,” the government secretary general said.
And emphasized that the government sees its role in simplifying the procedure and providing support and incentives, including financial ones, to communities that decide to go together.
“We in the government are finalizing a draft law that will simplify the process of voluntary association of mayoralties,” Buzu said. – And we will offer more incentives, including long-term financial incentives for communities that want to voluntarily merge, providing more flexibility for them.”
Digitalization without gadgets
However, as the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CALM) notes, there are many questions about the aforementioned centers, at least today.
First of all, the services provided in the Unified Service Delivery Centers (CUPS) do not cover all the services provided by the mayoralties. They are more focused on public services. But not all of about 100 competencies of mayoralties can be provided within the framework of such centers. Nothing is also known about how many and what kind of specialists will work in such centers.
“The authorities hope for digitalization of services, but in our villages about 40% of residents do not use gadgets,” says Marcel Bobeica, vice chairman of CALM, mayor of Gangura village in Ialoveni district. – Besides, it is unlikely that such centers will be in all villages – it would require serious financial resources. And if not, residents will have to go to villages where such centers or mayor’s offices exist. And this is a question of roads, transportation and citizens’ expenses.”
According to the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova, the process of digitalization related to the work of local authorities is stalled, although it has been talked about for 5 years. The platforms that will ensure the implementation of the reform are not ready yet, they are only beginning to be developed. It seems that the authorities want to implement the reform first, and then solve the issues as they arise.
Do not forget about people
Alexandru Tarnavschi, a deputy of the People’s Assembly of ATU Gagauzia and a member of the Moldovan delegation to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, warns that the local self-government reform cannot be reduced to a simple administrative-territorial reorganization. “The village head is not just a bureaucrat, but a person to whom people turn for advice and protection,” he emphasizes.
And the absence of a published draft and CALM’s exclusion from the drafting process weaken the legitimacy of the reform. He proposes a step-by-step approach: first rethinking the role and subjectivity of neighborhoods, then reforming city halls to respect citizens’ right to representation.
In his opinion, the European experience shows that bringing government closer to the people is more important than “mathematical economics”.
In France, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, small municipalities are preserved to prevent depopulation and preserve social capital. Tarnavsky warns that a hasty reform without citizen participation risks creating distrust and social tensions.
“We are not against reform, but it should not be carried out with such speed, and, most importantly, decisions on unification should be made only from below,” says Marchel Bobeika. – In this sense, for our commune, for example, the criterion that the authorities will take into account in the process of unification of mayoralties is important. According to the results of the census, we have 1800 people living here. This is less than before the census, because the census enumerators did not take into account those residents who are absent from the village for 12 months. In Romania, for example, this period was 24 months at the last census. But in our country, the residents who went abroad were not included in this number. And also young people who study abroad. Although they solve all their problems here, in Moldova, in the village. At the same time, we have 1900 voters, and if we add newborns to them, the number of residents turns out to be different. It is not clear how all this will be taken into account”.
On the other hand, Gangura, although a small commune in terms of number of residents, is larger than the district center and is doing quite well in terms of finances, according to Bobeyka. “However, so far it is said to be a purely mechanical approach to unification taking into account the number of residents. Although even the Ministry of Finance concluded in its study that in Moldova, it is not uncommon for small villages to cope better than large ones with financial problems.”
