Vasile Gradinaru, Grigore Novac.
“To liquidate the districts is the right thing to do. But there is indeed a legal aspect, because the Constitution provides for a form of administrative-territorial organization of the Republic of Moldova, and we cannot bypass this. At the same time, there are different opinions: whether we can go straight to 50 municipalities or districts. I believe, this is my opinion, that we should go at least in two stages. If necessary, an additional stage can be considered. But for now, the first step – reducing the number of districts to about 10 – is enough. There are also opinions about municipalities. People should get used to a more efficient model of governance, and I believe that there should be this transition period, after which we will analyze and see,” the MP said on Realitatea TV channel.
The constitutional provisions were also emphasized by PSRM deputy Grigore Novac.
“The same formula of districts will still be applied, because this is provided for by the Moldovan Constitution, and in order to move to regions, for example, it is necessary to change the Constitution. Therefore, they will still be called districts, only there will be fewer of them. Now it is said that there will be about 10 of them,” Novak said.
He also said that about 700 mayoralties will be affected as a result of the changes.
Does farther away mean closer?
“We put a cross on them, board up the doors of the mayoralties crosswise, and about 300 will remain. Obviously, at the initial stage will save money from the budget, because some councils will disappear. But in the future, a citizen will have to travel dozens of kilometers to get a certificate from the city hall, back and forth. Who will return this money to him? Any reform that is carried out should be solely in the interests of the citizen, but when you distance the local public administration from the citizen, it is not in his interests,” Novac said.
Gradinaru, for his part, said that the mayor’s offices do not distance themselves from the citizens, because there is still a representative of the government on the ground, who will solve the issues and pass them on.
“And secondly, we need to think about what kind of certificates we are talking about. I was talking to one citizen and he said he was against them not having a mayor’s office. When asked when he last went to City Hall, he said he couldn’t remember: one year ago? no. Two? no. Ten? no.”
