Ion Chicu
Ion Chicu, former prime minister and chairman of the Party for Development and Unity of Moldova, draws attention to this. The politician wonders where the logic is and how to explain this to citizens.
“Explain why, over the past four years, the State Chancellery’s staff has nearly doubled—from 202 employees to 379,” the politician asks. “That’s equivalent to the staff of 20 city halls, because that’s roughly how many specialists work in them. And if you factor in the burden on the budget, it’s even more, because salaries at the State Chancellery are much higher than in city halls.”
The same pattern is observed in other ministries, he notes. The Ministry of Justice had 94 employees; now it has 155 (an increase of 66). That’s equivalent to 8 city administrations. The Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure had 156 employees; it now has 308—twice as many (or the equivalent of 20 more city administrations).
At the Ministry of Agriculture, which was merged with the Ministry of Ecology, there were 121 specialists in 2021, and now its staff has also nearly doubled—to 206 people, or the equivalent of 13 city administrations. The Ministry of Health had 105 employees and now has 219; the Ministry of Education had 112 and now has 179, and so on.
“These simple arithmetic calculations show that by reducing the number of city administrations, the authorities are inflating the staff numbers in central government agencies,” he states. “So what kind of reform are we implementing? And how will we explain to our grandmothers the increase in the State Chancellery’s staff by another 56 people, while they are being deprived of the opportunity to turn to their local city hall to resolve a problem?”
