Activity of the Government on August 1–31, 2011

Acts of major importance

Engagement of responsibility for a draft law

Invoking attempts aimed to illegally take over estates of some financial institutions, the Government of Moldova engaged its responsibility for a draft law on modification and completion of some legislative policies designated to execute legal decisions and operate deals on real estate market:

It explains express the cases when the transfer of a share from the capital of a bank requires the preliminary written permit of the National Bank of Moldova and notes that the violation of these requirements means absolute nullity of transactions concerned;
The right of property on securities will be transferred just if legal decisions concerning the deals become irrevocable;
Legal executors will be obliged to grant a 15-day deadline to the parties to comply with the executorial document;
Article 257 which allows law courts to order the immediate execution of decisions will be cancelled;
The disciplinary board of executors will be subordinated and controlled by the Ministry of Justice, and others.

The draft law was promulgated by President of Moldova and entered into force, as the Parliament did not begin yet the session and no censorship motion was submitted. Meanwhile, prosecutor’s organs filed criminal charges for frauds (illicit appropriation of goods of somebody by cheating or abusing of confidence).

Decisions

Decision concerning the awarding of the National Prize of Moldova. Under the decision, the National Prize for 2011 worth 100,000 lei each is awarded to:

Gheorghe Ghidirim, Doctor of Medicine, lecturer, academician of the Moldovan Academy of Sciences, for outstanding accomplishments in medicine;
Ion Dediu, Doctor of Biology, member of the Moldovan Academy of Sciences, for outstanding merits in environment sector;
Svetlana Cojocaru, Doctor of Informatics, for outstanding results in mathematics and informatics;
Vasile Botnari, Doctor of Agriculture, for outstanding results in agricultural technology area;
Isaie Carmu, painter, for his work in the area of fine arts;
Maria Biesu, honour academician of the Moldovan Academy of Sciences, opera (soprano) and lied singer, director, for prodigious activity in theatrical arts;
Dumitru Matcovschi, poet, pose writer, playwright, publicist, translator, editor, academician of the Moldovan Academy of Sciences, for whole literary work;
Nicolae Dabija, writer, for whole literary work;
Tudor Casapu, athlete, coach, for outstanding sport results.

Decision concerning the establishment of the Economic Council to advise the Prime Minister. The council is established as an advisory organ to facilitate the dialogue between representatives of business community and politicians, in accordance with the setup and functioning regulation, with the view to develop a positive socioeconomic climate and a discrimination-free and fair business environment to attract investments. The prime minister will nominate council members, and reports on activity of the council, decisions, and agenda of sittings will be published on the website of the Government.

Decision approving the regulation and structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. The drafting of a new functioning regulation was needed to adjust it to effective laws. The central administration of MFAEI will be made of maximum 177 units, including 20 units of building maintenance personnel. The foreign minister is assisted by two deputy ministers and a secretary-general, the ministry includes a 13-member college. The MFAEI structure includes the directorate for state diplomatic protocol; general directorates for European integration, bilateral cooperation, multilateral cooperation, international law, consular affairs, and the directorate for policy analysis, monitoring and assessment; the directorate for personnel and legal department; the interior audit service; the service for information and communication with mass media; the directorate for budget and finances; the directorate for documentation, special affairs and state diplomatic archives; the directorate for management and logistics; the building maintenance service.

Decisions approving some draft laws:

Concerning the state aid;
Concerning the competition;
Concerning abusive clauses of contracts signed with consumers.

Decisions concerning the allocation of funds:

The Prosecutor-General’s Office is allocated 87,000 lei for special service missions to the Russian Federation and Ukraine;
Local public administration authorities are allocated 15,681,800 lei to provide single indemnities for home construction or purchase;
The Health Ministry is allocated 600,000 lei to cover some healthcare-related expenses abroad (no names of beneficiaries were reported);
The Ministry of Culture is allocated 1,036,574 lei to organise and hold cultural-artistic manifestations on August 27, 2011.

Decision approving the land cadastre. As of January 1, 2011, the land cadastre did not change compared with 2010; it covers 3,384,600 hectares overall, including 228,300 hectares of irrigated fields and 69,200 hectares of drained fields.

Orders

Plan to renovate law courts

Prime minister instructed the Ministry of Justice to table a plan aimed to renovate all law courts nationwide in a 5-year term and would cost about 20 million Euros.

Assistance for air passengers

Following long-delay flights in July 2011, the prime minister instructed the Ministry of Transportation and Road Infrastructure to transpose in the air transport regulation the best practices aimed to introduce compensations and assistance for passengers, in case of eventual denied access and cancelled or delayed flights.

Hearings in territory

According to a report by Government, an inefficient cooperation between Government and local authorities was signalled, and dignitaries refused visits and hearings in territory. The prime minister instructed members of his cabinet to resume visits to areas and ordered a strict monitoring of efficiency of such visits.

Providing school transportation

District heads tackled the purchase of buses to transport schoolchildren, with the prime minister urging their acquisition otherwise authorities should rent buses, so that to settle this problem before the beginning of the new school year.

Social aid system

Deputy Prime Minister Mihai Moldovanu will set up a working group to consider the social aid providing system and to recommend solutions to improve the system and to involve beneficiaries of social assistance in works for community’s benefit.

Sittings. Decisions

Sitting with district heads

A sitting convoked by prime minister discussed issues relating to activity of local authorities, cooperation with central authorities, existing problems and ways to settle them. The premier assured that the Government is seeking a deep cooperation with heads of all Moldovan districts and invited participants in the sitting to call upon his cabinet to help them settle some problems. The prime minister recommended district heads to set up as soon as possible an association of district authorities. In their turn, district heads said that an association will be shortly established after the model of the Congress of Local Public Authorities of Moldova and recommended the participation of members of the cabinet of ministers in future meetings with the premier, so that to discuss and find solutions to their problems. The sitting decided to organise such meetings every quarter and to hold videoconferences in case of emergency.

Meeting with representatives of IT companies

The meeting with the premier brought together representatives of the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, E-Governance Centre, institutions of higher learning. The discussion focussed on making conditions to develop the IT sector, reduce prices of computers for population, combat the illegal software import and boost professional education of IT specialists. Maintaining fiscal facilities for software manufacturers captured a special attention, as they run off in 2012. Representatives of IT sector requested competent authorities to preserve fiscal facilities for software producers the next years, so that to be able to maintain their competitiveness at international level, help developing the IT sector and open new jobs. The prime minister called for a fair solution to maintain fiscal facilities and ordered an analysis of the impact on this sector if the facilities are not cancelled.

Interdepartmental Strategic Planning Committee

A sitting considered strategic priorities for reform actions to be implemented until October with the purpose to enhance productivity and competitiveness, improve conditions for business environment and attract new investments. The prime minister asked institutions participating in negotiations to prove a maximal responsibility for an accurate execution of assumed commitments, with the purpose to disburse the 20-million-dollar budgetary support of the World Bank for Moldova, noting that this amount is already foreseen in the State Budget. The second issue considered by the Interdepartmental Strategic Planning Committee was the list of priority projects to be funded from the E-Moldova Fund, with five projects being expected to begin this year with the financial support of the World Bank as part of the Governance E-Transformation Programme in Moldova. The estimated value of projects is 12.4 million lei, of which 4 million lei will be spent to build a modern public e-procurement system, 3.5 million lei to build the software State Register of Education, which will include electronic registers of schoolchildren, teachers, teaching materials and education institutions; 3.5 million lei to build a modern document management system of the Government; 700,000 lei to consolidate the infrastructure of the database of the Special Telecommunication Centre, and 600,000 lei to develop the electronic register of holders of personal data, a priority project in the framework of the EU-Moldova visa liberalisation dialogue, which is part of the EU-Moldova Action Plan.

Visit to localities in Hincesti district

The prime minister collected facts regarding works aimed to build homes and social facilities, which began last year after floods in the area concerned deprived hundreds of families of their homes. According to data provided by local public authorities, 318 families from Cotul Morii moved to their new homes, 18 wells were built and supply drinking water to population. Residents from the village of Obileni signalled that they were cut off electricity following a conflict between building companies and electricity supplier. Seventy-six families from the village of Nemteni moved to new homes, and another 19 homes are being built as part of the second round of building works performed with the support of Concordia Foundation.

Visit to Gagauzia

During a sitting with the participation of members of the People’s Assembly, executive committee, mayors from the administrative-territorial unit Gagauzia and managers of largest businesses from the region, Gagauz Governor Mihail Formuzal asked Prime Minister Vlad Filat to run for the office of Moldovan President because residents of the autonomy regard him as a national political leader and administrative personality. Filat said that the chief of state will be elected this autumn, as new early parliamentary elections are not welcome. The prime minister visited the race horse raising farm AT Prolin from Ceadir-Lunga, which raises race horses Orlov and went for a short riding there.

Sitting on drug trading

According to reports by the Ministry of health and CCCEC, 96 percent of medications sold on domestic market were introduced into the price guide and thus drug prices decreased by 19 percent, compared with the similar period of last year, and a rise of drug prices was prevented this way, as they annually increased by more than 20 percent last years. Prices of medications imported from China, India and Syria did not decrease because neighbouring markets do not sell them and no reference prices are available. The premier instructed competent authorities to regulate better the opening of pharmacies, including in hospitals and clinics. He was angry that prices of certain medications were not lowered and noted that the public procurement system of hospitals and clinics shall improve.

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