Activity of the Government on July 1–16, 2006

Rules. Appointments

The Government has proposed the appointment of Ion Robu to the post of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Moldova to Azerbaijan. Robu has headed the National Commission for Securities till April 2006, but he recently tendered his resignation from unknown reasons.

Valentin Guznac was assigned as deputy minister of local public administration. Previously, Guznac was deputy mayor of the Balti municipality.

The executive has decided to relieve Petru Grecu from the post of deputy director of the National Regulatory Agency for Telecommunication and Informatics without explaining the reasons. This way, the ANRTI Management Board holds only one out of three posts of directors that it must run (Iurie Tabirta was relieved from the post of ANRTI director in 2005 from unknown reasons).

Decisions

Decision #768 from 05.07.2006 concerning transmission of some real estate. By motivating with the need to execute the Parliament decision #1198-XIII from 29 May 1997 concerning illicit privatisation of the sanatorium Legkovik, the Government has decided to transmit the buildings of the former sanatorium from balance of the Privatisation Agency of the Ministry of Economy and Trade to the balance of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection. The Ministry of Health and Social Protection will rent these buildings for free to the Association Casa Sperantei, an institution sponsored by first lady Taisia Voronin, for the organisation of the recovery centre for children suffering from severe handicap of locomotion apparatus, without any right to use them for other purposes. It should be noted that this decision of the Parliament was the object of control in the Constitutional Court, which has outlawed many provisions, including the word “illicit” from the name of the document, but the Government insists on takeover of the unconstitutional name in its decision adopted after 9 years.

Decision on reorganisation of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. Under amendments to the law on Government, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport is reorganised into the Ministry of Education and Youth and the Sport Agency (with the latter taking over the sport-related tasks). The decision also allows the dismissal of ministerial employees “in line with the law on public service and labour legislation in effect.” The Ministry of Education and Youth must table changes of structure, maximum personnel and its regulation of activity within 15 days, while the Sport Agency will present its structure, maximum staff and regulation of activity.

Decision extending the term for confirmation of citizenship and issuing of identity acts to residents of eastern districts of Moldova. The July 1 deadline was extended till late 2006 in connection with lots of applications of residents from eastern districts of the country.

Decision on preparation of educational institutions for the academic year 2006–07. More than buildings of educational institutions are supposed to be renovated, while education directorates and local authorities will conduct a census of children who will be admitted at school.

Decision approving the regulation of motor passenger and luggage transportation. The document contains a series of innovations whose implementation is controversially commented by transporters and passengers, who fear that some unwise decisions will violate their rights.

Decision on allocation of finances. The Government imposes the Ministry of Finance to allocate “1,100,000 lei from general means of the state budget” to the Ministry of Local Public Administration for an efficient activity of this ministry, “by establishing the covering source when the 2006 state budget will be eventually rectified.”

Sittings. Decisions. Declarations

Efficiency of privatisation of some enterprises

The prime minister has chaired a sitting of the contest commission for privatisation of tobacco and wine enterprises. It heard reports of members of the commission and managers of some privatised enterprises regarding respect for privatisation requirements and contract-related obligations by investors of enterprises S.A. Calarasi Divin, S.A. Nis-Struguras, S.A. Vismos. Vasile Tarlev highlighted the need of honouring all assumed commitments, maintaining and increasing the number of workers of these enterprises, and developing the raw material base, including the planting of vine in the due terms. The administration of enterprises was invited to participate actively in the Government-promoted programmes on diversification of markets.

Finalisation of negotiations on gas deliveries

The Government released a communication on July 3 saying that “the tariff for the natural gas imported by Moldova from the Russian Federation will grow twofold compared with 2005, up to 160 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres starting July 1, 2006, following difficult negotiations with Gazprom,” after it avoided to confirm or deny the imminent rise of the price of natural delivered to Moldova by Gazprom. According to the communication, “the Government has managed to preserve the state patrimony during negotiations; it did not sell or accept the reduction of the state share in assets of the energy system of Moldova due to the strong stance of the Moldovan side.” The National Agency for Energy Regulation will calculate the natural gas tariffs for all categories of consumers on basis of the negotiated price. According to estimates, “all tariffs will be increased proportionally to the rise of the price of imported gas.” The Government will take the necessary measures for a partial, nominal compensation of additional expenses after the price rise, in order to minimise the impact of higher tariffs of natural gas on household consumers. Thus, the tariff will grow by 25 percent only for households who consume up to 30 cubic metres, in order to reduce the negative impact of higher natural gas price. We note in this context that under the Memorandum with IMF (pct.22) the Moldovan Government has pledged “to make consumers (households and enterprises) pay the higher gas prices for natural gas, so that to recover the costs and to maintain the current system of nominative compensations.”

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