Activity of the Government on September 16–30, 2008

Appointments. Dismissals

Vasile Botnari was appointed Director of the Transport Agency. Previously, Mr. Botnari was manager of the Air Moldova Company.

Decisions

Decision on salary increase for some budget sector employees. Starting October 1, 2008, the earners paid accordingly to the lowest salary categories will receive salaries based on maximum quotas of the salary grid. Thus, the 1^st salary category will be 500 lei (440 lei before), and the 15^th category will be 1,200 lei (1,030 lei before). Along with introduction of new salary rates, all rises, supplements, other salary payments established in percent of the service wage are calculated accordingly to the new salary rates.

Decision approving the regulation on funding the housing for people hit by the July-August 2008 floods. Under the decision, the Ministry of Construction and Territorial Development (MCDT) was allocated 25 million lei collected on a special account for the assistance of people hit by floods. October 15, 2008 is the deadline to purchase houses and the MCTD will further report the spending of the allocated funds to the Government.

Decision on creation of the Transport Agency. The agency is formed after the reorganisation of the Ministry of Transport and Road Management and State Civil Aviation Administration and it will be in charge with ground, air and rail transports. The Ministry of Construction and Territorial Development will be further in charge with road maintenance and management.

Decision on implementation of the one-stop-shop within the Licensing Chamber. It approves a list of documents and information which will be approved, confirmed or checked via the one-stop-shop procedure and compel public authorities and regulation/control institutions to ensure the access of the Licensing Chamber to updated state information resources. If the competent authorities or public institutions fail to respond to the chamber’s requests in due term, the information or documents concerned will be considered confirmed or approved.

Decisions on the allocation of funds:

The Ministry of Justice is allocated 2.17 million lei to finish reconstruction works at the medical facility of the Rusca-based Prison;
The local councils in Hincesti and Soroca are allocated 383,000 lei to compensate victims of political repressions.

Decisions approving some plans:

Aimed to stimulate the comeback of Moldovan migrant workers from other countries.

Decision on abrogation of some governmental decisions. It abrogates 61 decisions adopted in 1994–2008 to approve and promote some out-of-date policy documents. The decision represents an outcome of the commission for the revision of policy documents. created in June 2008.

Sittings. Decisions. Statements

Press conference by prime minister

Prime Minister Zinaida Greceanii has analysed evolutions in the economic, social sectors, foreign policy, stating among others that:

Despite less encouraging factors, a coherent progress was made in all key directions of the Government Programme;
The uplifting state of things in the macroeconomic area is also confirmed by foreign development partners (IMF), although so-called analysts are discontent, releasing apocalyptic scenario about prospects of the Moldovan economy;
The acting Government will not accept another way but the macroeconomic stability course, no matter how popular or unpopular this approach will be;
The inflation rate has grown by 6 percent this year, being part of the lowest rates in the region;
The Consumer Price Index is again under control (below 10 percent a year) despite of increasing natural gas and electricity tariffs, and therefore, the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) has recently lowered the mandatory reserve and basic rates by 1.5 percentage points each;
The Gross Domestic Product rose by 6.2 percent in the 2^nd quarter (the GDP has grown by 5.4 percent in the 1^st semester);
The evolution of the trade balance and existing problems in starting up business raise concerns, while pace of foreign direct investments rise is encouraging;
The draft state budget law for 2009 was built on the following principle: expenses may grow only on the basis of an economic growth; social policies continue to be promoted; budgetary revenues will reach 17.7 billion lei and they will grow by about 21 percent compared to 2008, while expenses will reach 18.3 billion lei; allocations for the social sector will be raised by 28 percent compared to 2008; for the first time, real funds are planned for 2009 to ensure the territorial reintegration of Moldova and enforce the Law on political parties (the budget includes about 8 million lei);
The external activity is related to Moldova’s presidency in 5 regional organisations and the November 13–14 Summit of CIS prime ministers, in Chisinau, is expected to be a special event.

Government to cooperate more efficiently with supreme financial control body

A sitting with the participation of Cabinet members and representatives of the Accounting Chamber has tackled ways of cooperation and difficulties faced by the chamber during its work, as well as problems discovered after controls. In particular, it signalled insufficient capacities of financial-accounting subdivisions for the strategic planning of fund management based on the programs’ budgeting; necessity of auditing natural resources, optimise the use of public patrimony and capital investments. In this context, the Prime Minister asked ministers to pay more attention to the execution of decisions by the Accounting Chamber and instructed the Government Apparatus to monitor their execution. It was decided that reports on execution of recommendations by the Accounting Chamber on sectors of economy will be heard at public sittings every semester.

Creation of the National Council for Participation

Following certain problems, the Government has finally succeeded to set up the representative forum of civil society organisations called National Council for Participation (NCP), which brings together organisations of the private sector, academia, NGOs, mass media. The NCP will participate in elaboration, implementation, monitoring and assessment of public policies, being able to help improving the governing, ensuring transparency and efficiency of the use of public funds, combating corruption. It advises the interdepartmental strategic planning committee led by prime minister and includes 33 members at present.

U.S. assistance for law enforcement bodies

The U.S. Government will assist the Moldovan Government to develop skills of law enforcement bodies on the basis of an amendment to the Agreement on control on drugs and application of legal norms. The additional funding is foreseen for the implementation of a project on development of law enforcement bodies that aims to consolidate their skills of investigating and proceeding against grave violations, while the financial assistance is planned for the basic training and purchase of necessary equipment.

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