Local Development in Moldova
Concepts and Practices
Igor Munteanu
Discussion Papers, No.12
Published in 1999 by the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative
Open Society Institute
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Introduction to the Series
The development of democratic and effective government at subnational levels remains one of the central tasks of transition in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The sharing of expertise between countries can contribute significantly to the reform process in the region. Pursuing this goal, the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI) has launched a series of discussion papers, which will be distributed widely throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
The series will report the findings of projects supported by LGI and will include papers written by authors who are not LGI grant recipients. LGI offers assistance for the translation of the papers into the national languages of the region. The opinions presented in the papers are those of the authors and do not necessary represent the views of the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative.
Igor Munteanu is active in both public administration and journalism in Moldova. He is the Chairman of the Board of the Viitorul Foundation. He is also project officer for the Public Administration Reforms’ Project. Since 1996, he has been Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Arena Politicii Magazine in Chisinau and also reports for the Romanian section of Radio Free Europe. Igor Munteanu’s latest publication is "Integration and Nation-Building in Bi-Cultural Post-Soviet Societies: the Cases of Estonia and Moldova," a chapter for a joint study conducted by the University of Oslo, Department of East European and Oriental Studies. Comments can be addressed to: igorm@cc.acad.md.
Contents
Local Development in Moldova: Concepts and Practices
Introduction 1
De?nitions 4
Choosing an Adequate Strategy for Local Development 7
Local Public Finance 12
Public Services 19
Land Reform 27
Towards an Interactive Relation between Local Authorities
and their Clients 29
Social and Political Interests at the Local Level 29
Assessment of Impact of Political and Economic Reforms 35
Civic Involvement and Conditions of Emergence
for a Civil Society 37
Improvement of Performance of Locally Elected Of?cials
and Public Of?cers 41
Solutions to Social Problems: Rural Unemployment 42
The Emergence of a Model of Local Democracy in Moldova 46
Legal Reform 46
Horizons of Implementation of Local Public
Administration Reform 48
Dissemination of Information on Local Public
Administration Reform 53
Notes 59
Introduction
The current research describes the experience gained by the Viitorul Foundation during the Local Development in Innovative Villages Program (implemented May 1997–August 1998), ?nancially supported by the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (af?liated with the Open Society Institute). It took place in three rural communities representative in terms of size, social, economic and developmental potential, and electoral pro?le in the northern, central and southern parts of the Republic of Moldova. By following speci?c criteria to select these villages, we tried to identify the elements of a pattern of local development and were able to combine rural innovation with pragmatism to effect an ef?cient self-creative model at the local level. As a general strategy, the Program aimed at reacting to the growing vulnerability of rural areas as a direct result of the transitional dif?culties implicit in changing to a market economy and a decentralized system of public administration. The observations and conclusions we drew during the Program led us to believe that the experience was useful and compelling in developing an understanding of internal transition in the rural localities of the Republic of Moldova—a transition initiated to produce systematic changes in social and economic structures, relationships and mentalities—which greatly differ from the external transition, somehow simplistically associated with international recognition and political declarations that followed the breakup of the former Soviet Union. These observations convinced us that four basic conditions are necessary for ef?cient local self-administration: (1) strategy, (2) political will, (3) managerial skills and (4) public understanding and support. The identi?cation and assessment of parameters of an optimal model of restructuring and economic rehabilitation of the rural community may follow the principle "develop yourself with your own resources" but still has to use a series of concepts and tools that shape the essence of the process of local development.
First, the elements of the concept for a dynamic local development are closely interrelated and equally signi?cant. Without public acceptance of the role of local public authorities, even well intended efforts of a local council or mayor are predetermined to fail. Without a well-instructed team seeking managerial success (including managing local public assets) the very best intentions cannot succeed. On the other hand, citizens are left to live in a constant state of alienation if they do not comprehend the values and mechanisms speci?c to their local governance.
Second, local administrations have to produce local owners since only by raising a class of free proprietors can the local authorities count on stable incomes to ?ll in the gaps of the local budget. Only by combining the interests of local communities (to feel secure, to live in a healthy environment, to have access to workplaces, to bene?t from modern public services) and those of business people who are directly interested in modernization of the infrastructure (opportunities offered by local authorities, prestige and public security) can local authorities ensure the way toward reforms and social transformation. Today, almost 80% of the population of analyzed communities are involved in agricultural activities while the processing and distribution of agricultural production is still completely neglected. The uncertainty connected to the status of the property of former collective farms represents an important hindrance to local development since under these conditions local public authorities cannot attract any investment or conclude any agreement to bring technology and business contracts to the community.
Third, local councils have to decide which public services have to be placed under common or private administration, and what are the advantages and the disadvantages of this transfer. By using the power of their speci?c mandate, those with local power have to become aware of the importance of public services for the citizens they represent, identify the most quali?ed providers of such public services and forecast future needs depending on the need for continuous growth of local public services.
Fourth, since public authorities represent the agents of change and the animators of local development, nothing can substitute for the rigor of planning and forecasting such development. From this point of view an important resource is the involvement of citizens and stimulation of alternative groups of "advocates of speci?c interests." It has to be realized that local authorities cannot choose between to plan or not to plan, but only whether to plan well or to plan poorly. We understand that the activity of forecasting and planning may be dif?cult and sometimes require special skills, but by being equipped with a series of instruments and basic tools of information, the local authorities can confer on local development a more realistic, interactive and creative content, which will be supported by persons and institutions whose only interest is to contribute to the prosperity of the community to which they belong. The only danger comes from the passivity, the inertia and the alternative of preferring "the luxe of docility" to a centralist regime of administration.
Fifth, the development of a culture of local democracy cannot appear as a dogmatic call, especially in a transition period and in a country in which the central government is still tempted to dominate the life and the spirit of local and regional centers. Local powers can succeed in their effort of "animation" of the spirit of solidarity and association of the community. People have to believe that their efforts and contributions bring results that are useful to the public interest. The remuneration has to come both in individual terms (material or moral remuneration) and in physical terms (the satisfaction of living in a healthier, cleaner and safer environment).
Sixth, mayors and councilors have to be responsible to the electorate, for their activities and elections represent an extraordinary stimulus for them to operate ef?ciently and effectively as leaders and public managers on the basis of the proxy of the people. The disregard for public consultations discriminates against the population of the village in terms of "managers" and the "managed," the "masses" and "untouchable leaders," which is a step backwards in relation to the democratic changes of the post–1991 era. The appointment of mayors by the central government (which took place after the elections of April 16, 1998) represents an anomaly, and this is why it is in the interest of local authorities to depend only upon the will of the community that they represent, and not upon the desire of the central government. For the moment, the people of the local community seem to lack "a certain feeling of ownership" over their environment (the village, county or town).
Otherwise, inertia, con?ict, demagogy and cynicism will remain "traditional ?ags" of local political life (which although it became "political" after free elections it did not become more ef?cient). Instead of the ef?ciency and true alternation of of?cials at the "steering wheel" of local administration, the population often sees only the continuation of the same customs of the old regime, which is alienated from the goals and direction of the reform. As a consequence, any citation of the "public good" raises only a bitter smile, con?rming the attitude that those empowered (either elected or employed to represent the interests of the local community) are only capable of political speculation and deceit.
De?nitions
Local development represents a staggered process aimed at the improvement of the lives of citizens through the employment of local resources and effective utilization of organizational capacity: administration, management, forecasting and other services which produce "goods" of local public interest such as new workplaces, maximization of economic potential, support of private initiative and offering public services to the population. However, the greatest bene?t of the concept is essentially the de?nition of a "vision" equally assumed by public authorities and citizens. This is why local authorities have to assume new roles and functions, among which is that of the agent of change (with the credibility of councils formed after the local elections of April 1995), the ambassador of interests of the community (in dealing with institutions and communities in order to establish cooperative agreements during the project) and the ampli?er of signals (getting and delivering initiatives to citizens, treating them equally and nondiscriminatorily, self-organizing depending on the need for growth in their communities).
What has to be done? To answer this question is to articulate general principles that have to guide local authorities towards decentralization and emancipation, planning of resources and development of potential. At ?rst sight, planning and forecasting seem only a simple matter lacking importance. Instead, such activities demand a constant, professional involvement on the part of local public authorities. Very few local community leaders in Moldova possess the necessary set of elements for the maintenance of projects of local development. This lack leads to abuses on the part of central authorities in the distribution of occasional and discretionary donations instead of contributing to the creation of conditions necessary for the optimal utilization of the local potential. The public authorities are not yet convinced that development planning may be useful; rather, they continue to live with a strong sense of instability and autarchy (out of the chronic lack of resources and pressure of previously unsolved problems). Although numerous efforts have been made in the last few years to consolidate local powers, there are very few cases when mayors expressed their wishes and succeeded to assume full responsibility for the management of public interests. Finally, we concluded that people lack the belief that their actions can produce valuable results. There is an open question to local councils and mayoralties everywhere: How can the energy of the population from local community be used for the development of activities capable of absorbing this energy and ful?lling social expectations? Even if the enforcement of the concept of local development is in its incipient stage, some tendencies toward consolidation of local autonomy have seemed, however, to emerge in the Republic of Moldova. We are listing only some general suggestions that will be discussed in further detail in the following sections.
First, local councils have to ?nd the most suitable model of development for a respective area and tune it to other models implemented by regional or national authorities, while de?ning the objectives and the priorities for the short, medium and long term. The program of local development has to be complex and include the vital aspects of the local community, among which are: developing an infrastructure, modernizing public services, establishing new enterprises, providing assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises, restructuring and diversi?cation of existing industries, improving the ecological situation, stimulating marketing activities with the purpose of attracting investments, promoting international cooperation, organizing and participating in exhibitions, and providing assistance to the unemployed.
Second, it is useful to recall that a special contribution to the implementation of the concept of local development has to be brought by representatives of the private sector. As a result, one of the priorities of any local developmental project has to represent assistance in establishing new private enterprises. Ef?cient local development may also appear in the case when the project can be extended to an intercommunity, interregional or even international level. A remarkable example in this respect is represented by the Transcarpathian region of Moldova that integrates over one million people from ?ve counties of Eastern and Central Europe. Associations form for the purpose of an ef?cient use of material and ?nancial resources. It has to be mentioned that the formulation of the objectives of a program of economic development at the local level needs an intensive understanding of assumed responsibilities as well as an identi?cation of potential resources for a particular time horizon.
Third, the role of mayors elected via a direct vote by the population is characterized as important and very important by almost 63% of those surveyed.1 The problems identi?ed in the pilot localities (Dominteni, Chircaiesti, Costesti) are typical for most Moldovan villages, which is why our remarks may serve as a necessary ground for understanding the actual crisis. Among the dif?culties most frequently seen in these villages are the following: (a) excessive dependence on the agricultural sector and weather conditions; (b) outdated technology and worn-out agricultural equipment; (c) decreased productivity; (d) a high rate of unemployment.
Fourth, the role of employees of mayoralties must be treated carefully. This implies the creation of its own agenda which the local public authorities can maintain and communicate to their particular community:
? The mayoralties have to be more dependent on their productivity in respect to their electorate and local councils;
? The mayors have to communicate more ef?ciently with the population of the community, explaining the objectives to be achieved, and creating certain visions of change;
? The mayors have to encourage others’ efforts and ideas, including those of local councilors, interest groups and citizens;
? The mayors have to listen to their citizens;
? The mayors do not have to assume tasks that naturally belong to the central government (for example, matters which relate to courts’ decisions), independently of the bene?ts that the launching of such activities may bring;
? The mayors have to avoid the routine of daily procedures (it has to be mentioned that the power of a mayor is measured by the capacity to perform (and the pride which accompanies this process) that he develops in himself and in others, and not by the size of the budget or number of cars he possesses).
Choosing an Adequate Strategy for Local Development
Effective local development can be achieved only through consistent and coordinated efforts.2 The selection of the most preferable model of development depends on the quality of the relationships between public authorities and citizens as well as on the local resources available. The results of strategic planning contribute not only to economic and social performance but also to the consolidation of democratic values and procedures (Ronald Young 1994). The elaboration of the strategy of local development in the long-run clearly states the task of local authorities, the period of accomplishment and the speci?c responsibilities. Strategic planning is a multistage process, which stresses the following priorities.
Economic assessment. The ?rst stage of elaboration of any project of local development has to start with collection and analysis of data correspondent to the given economic potential. Quantitative and qualitative data are necessary for identi?cation of the most stringent problems. At this stage the economic agents are also identi?ed whose potential allows the resolution of critical problems and their degree of involvement in the maximization of economic chances of the local community. The experts of the foundation, along with the local specialists in respective villages, have spotted some economic agents capable of solving speci?c problems of the community. For the villages of Chircaiesti (Causeni), Costesti (Ialoveni) and Dominteni (Drochia) where the Viitorul Foundation has implemented the Local Development in Innovative Villages Program using two surveys, speci?c problems have been revealed:
? Insuf?ciency of centralized ?nancing and excessive dependence on the primary agricultural sector;
? Weakness of the new class of landowners and outdated agricultural equipment;
? Lack of centers of accumulation for the production and distribution of agricultural products;
? Low productivity and limitation of production to the needs of the household;
? High rates of rural unemployment and anarchy in the use of human resources.
Setting goals, objectives and realistic strategies. The establishment of tasks represents the ?rst stage of local development through setting intermediary objectives at the general level of the community. These intermediary stages offer a sense of direction and a useful instrument of assessment of performance. The goals are de?ned through objectives that establish standards of ef?ciency and identify the sectors that have to absorb assistance and institutional consolidation. De?ning the goals represents the brainstorming of ideas capable of mobilizing political action.3 Thus, a strategy of local development represents the tool of achieving in the most optimal way the goals and objectives set by the citizens of the community. One of the goals de?ned in Chircaiesti and Dominteni for their development program was the establishment of centers of collection and distribution of agricultural production. To reach this goal, the mayoralties have identi?ed the following objectives: establishing conditions for cooperation between the private and public sectors, involving the population in formulating "public interests" and acceptance of the transparency in relations with citizens. Further, local public authorities have established their own strategies of developing alternative resources for future projects of local development, on the basis of:
? Founding of a local nongovernmental organization (NGO) to involve people in this process;
? Elaborating programs for obtaining external sources of ?nancing;
? Attracting local entrepreneurs to discussions regarding the priorities of the community and establishing an agenda of cooperation among the mayors and private initiative;
? Monitoring actions undertaken in this respect by the local council and social activists;
? Launching discussions over speci?c projects for development of the community (e.g., establishing a local agricultural market, cleaning wells, computerizing the school, constructing a public bath);
? Assessing strengths and weaknesses of the local economy and its comparative advantages.
Identi?cation, evaluation and prioritization of projects. After the elaboration of speci?c projects, the mayoralties have to identify and evaluate the resources necessary for their implementation, taking into account the following:
? The project has to correspond to the actual priorities of the community;
? The impact of the project on the community has to be assessed (new workplaces, improvement of the working climate, etc.);
? The project has to be feasible from economic, technical, social and political points of view in order to be acceptable to the community.
After establishing the ?rst local NGOs in the villages of Chircaiesti, Costesti and Dominteni, the experts of the Viitorul Foundation, together with the leaders of these organizations, mayors and members of local councils, have started to formulate a project to assist certain vulnerable sectors of the community. The ?nancial model had been chosen, and the projected cost structure had quite a clear distribution among the ?nancial contributors of the community: public authorities, private sector and external resources.4 This way a maximization of local resources and serious enhancement of cooperation within the community have been achieved.
Preparation and implementation of action plans and monitoring of steps undertaken. Action plans determine the necessary steps the local public authorities have to undertake towards reaching the desirable developmental objectives. Each project has to state the required terms of implementation, the persons responsible for each task, the intermediary stages and the expected results. Strategic planning is a dynamic process and the actions undertaken have to be rigorously monitored, otherwise these actions may create suspicions among the local population or may diffuse the efforts and the energy of the local councilors. At this stage, it is very important for the mayoralties to be able to maintain an ef?cient informational contact with the citizens they represent. Starting in June 1997, the Viitorul Foundation has edited for the respective mayoralties three local informational bulletins which largely reveal the actions of the local public administration, the projects in progress and different opinions of social activists from the villages.
Program implementation. Bringing external resources through the participation of foreign investors is much easier to achieve in situations when it is possible to count on an extensive local entrepreneurial activity, and when local authorities have the will and succeed in stimulating the functioning of a strong private sector. In this sense, the mayors of Dominteni, Chircaiesti and Costesti have managed to launch a number of interesting, although insuf?cient, initiatives.
The Mayor of Chircaiesti (Causeni) has managed to establish important contacts with a group of business people from Sweden. These contacts have led to serious discussions related to the construction of a furniture-assembling factory in the village. It is very important for the mayor to be supported in his attempts by the local council and thus to share the responsibilities with the representative authority or with other local public of?cers. In Costesti, a private ?shing ?rm strongly penetrated the local market, bringing remarkable results year after year. Succeeding in conquering different markets with products of high quality such as live and conserved ?sh, caviar and locally brewed beer, the ?rm has launched a series of individual projects, aiming at diversifying the range of offered products, involving unemployed from the village and developing new activities in a dynamic market. In this respect, the experts of the Viitorul Foundation have edited a whole series of promotional materials (in Romanian and English) to advertise the efforts of people from Costesti and to promote cooperative relationships in new European markets.
The procrastination of the reforms of territorial administration and public administration systems in the Republic of Moldova delays its economic development. In a survey with public of?cers from the mayoralties of Chircaiesti, Costeati and Dominteni, the question was posed: "Do you consider that the state has to be involved more actively in solving the problems of your locality, or do you believe that you have to solve these problems yourselves?" Over 60% of those interviewed stressed that, in the case when the central authorities cannot solve the problems, it is necessary to decentralize the power to the level where local authorities have enough decision-making power before their independent actions, supported by the new laws, will essentially contribute to local development. Thus, to encourage private initiative, the mayor of Dominteni has proposed to lease the lake from the village neighborhood to local entrepreneurs and prepare all the necessary documentation. The ?nancial resources eventually obtained would allow the solving of many local problems. Unfortunately, the local council has rejected this proposal, implying that this would prevent the population of the village from ?shing freely in the lake. As a result, the budget of the mayoralty has missed the opportunity to get an important amount of money. The entrepreneurs, in their turn, have managed to lease the lake from a neighboring village, successfully seizing the opportunities offered by the other mayoralty. Thus it is very important for a mayor, as executive leader of the local public administration, not only to be able to detect existing opportunities but also to be able to convince, through well-based arguments, the local council of the importance of respective projects in solving local needs. Of course, at the national scale it is important to consider also the least developed regions, whose economic potential is almost completely nonexistent. Therefore, the involvement of central authorities in the speci?c identi?cation of such regions and the provision of strictly necessary support for the economic rehabilitation of respective areas is very important.
Local Public Finance
A local government cannot exist without the resources necessary to maintain its local and regional councils, directly proportional to the responsibilities established by law. This cannot happen without decentralizing the budgetary system, which determines the real motivation of the administrative units in raising the number of sources of income and preventing ?scal evasion. The actual situation of ?nancial dependence of local public authorities creates huge barriers to local development. The practice of centralizing all taxes under the roof of the Ministry of Finance, followed by a discretionary policy of subsequent redistribution, violates in essence the Constitution (Article 109), the Law on Local Public Administration (Chapter VIII) and the rigors imposed by Article 9 of the European Charter, "Autonomous Exercise of Local Power," which provides that member countries speci?cally have to consider the right of territorial communities (through a law on local ?nance)—these have to own suf?cient resources to be able to utilize them freely within the exercise of their competencies. In Moldova the crisis of the national economy negatively in?uences local budgets.
Table 1
Local budget (‘000) Incomes Population
Chircaiesti
1996 310.9 147.1 4,054
1997 436.3 337.6 4,050
1998 402.2 257.6 4,084
2000 4,050
Costesti
1996 1,723 589.1 12,450
1997 1,449 614.4 12,600
1998 1,374 679.7 12,600
2000 1,511 763.0 12,700
Dominteni
1996 436.1 209.8 1,592
1997 277.9 115.0 1,580
1998 351 181.0 1,588
2000 500 200.0 1,550
It is not by chance that the budgets of these villages were not able to meet the most stringent social tasks. Thus, in 1997 in the villages of Dominteni and Costesti the volume of ?nancial means has dramatically decreased, representing respectively MDL 277,900 and MDL 1,449,200 (compared to MDL 436,100 and MDL 1,723,600 in 1996).
Figure 1
Weight of Own Resources in Local Budget
1996 1997 1998 2000
Costesti (%) 34.18 42.2 49.42 –
Chircaiesti (%) 47.3 41.8 51.6 50.5
Dominteni (%) 48.1 50.46 51.56 40.0
The weight of their own ?nancial resources coming from local taxes in 1997 was 50.46% in Dominteni, 41.80% in Chircaiesti and 42.4%, in Costesti, with the rest of the ?nancial resources originating from provisions offered by the state or from other sources. In the villages of Chircaiesti and Costesti a tendency toward decreasing ?nancial means in their local budgets has been noted. The considerable dependence of the local community on the regional budget diminishes the constitutional principle of local autonomy. In 1997 the budgetary sources per capita in the villages of Chircaiesti, Costesti and Dominteni have been respectively MDL 4.8, 115 and 175.9. The local councils from Chircaiesti and Dominteni have planned for the 1998 budget an increase of these resources up to MDL 51.6 and 221, respectively.
Figure 2
Local Budget.MDL per Capita
1996 1997 1998 2000
Costesti (%) 138.4 115.0 109.0 119
Chircaiesti (%) 47.3 41.8 51.6 –
Dominteni (%) 274.0 175.9 221.0 322.8
In the structure of the local budget the expenses related to education constitute 90.7% and 82% in Costesti and Dominteni, respectively, and expenses related to the functioning of the mayoralty are 4.3% in Costesti and 12.1% in Dominteni. For the maintenance of cultural and health objectives 3.7% in Costesti and 5.7% in Dominteni has been allocated. The amounts provided for the social sphere are hardly enough to cover salaries.
Table 2
Budget Expenses in 1997
Costesti Dominteni
Mayoralty
‘000 62.6 33.7
% 4.3 12.1
Education
‘000 1,315.4 228.0
% 90.7 82.0
Culture
‘000 16.2 5.5
% 1.1 1.9
Health
‘000 38.1 10.6
% 2.6 3.8
Other
‘000 16.9 0.1
% 1.3 0.2
Total
‘000 1,449.2 277.9
The Viitorul Foundation’s experts observed the factors which negatively in?uence the weight of the villages own resources in the local budget. They are, by order of importance, the following: (1) the local community is too small; (2) within the territory of the respective local community there does not exist a suf?cient number of economic agents that could maintain the local budget; (3) the infrastructure of public services is not suf?ciently developed, which drastically diminishes the possibilities of completion of local budgets. During the discussions and seminars organized by the experts of the Viitorul Foundation, special attention was drawn to the involvement of different economic agents interested in carrying on commercial activities, production or services. Among these are: (a) concession of public land, (b) association of the local council with economic agents for ?ve to ten years during which the local council provides land and other facilities and the economic agent performs an activity necessary for the local population; (c) leasing of public land to different economic agents for the placement of shops or boutiques (preferably standardized) for commercial uses or other for-pro?t purposes.
We have to mention that concession, association or leasing of land or facilities from the local community is legally binding only with the approval of the local council, which establishes the form of the contract, including the rights and obligations of the parties. The mayoralties have to learn how to attract economic agents through organizing public auctions or other forms of private initiative participation to ensure services of high quality at reasonable prices. It is necessary to determine the conditions of participation at public auctions, the mode of execution, the terms of execution, the performance criteria, the equipment and the workforce to be used. Within the Program, the Viitorul Foundation tried to promote interest in the autonomous creation of local budgets, even under conditions when the local budgets represent a pure ?ction, by offering consulting services in how to manage local resources, collect local and central taxes, and identify other sources and possibilities of reorganization of services as independent units.
In the ?rst stage, to identify the origin of existing problems, the Foundation’s experts tried to establish a sincere dialogue with the mayors of the localities involved in the project and with of?cers responsible for the collection of taxes, including secretaries and accountants. It has been revealed that the local communities do not have autonomy in managing their ?nances because there is no speci?c law in this sense—rather, the position of local authorities to autonomously manage their ?nancial means has been conceived only in the text of the Constitution. Therefore, we can conclude that the regional executive powers still dictate to the mayoralties of villages and communities the amount of funds they will receive, while the role of the local councils in approving the budget is reduced to con?rming these ?gures. Thus the former top-down system of budgeting still persists. We consider as abnormal a situation in which the collection of all the taxes in rural and urban localities represents the task of the mayor, while the ?scal inspectorates hold the role of observers. Depending on the volume of tax income, the mayoralties of villages can bene?t from certain provisions from the regional budget. All the taxes are collected centrally, without taking into account the developmental needs of local communities. The Ministry of Finance, via regional ?nancial departments, subsequently transfers funds to the local budgets. This implies a considerable degree of dependence of local authorities on hierarchically superior organizations and subordination of the mayoralties of local communities, in a form of "transmission belts," to the regional executive committees, while the local councils remain as simple decorations lacking their original meaning.
In the second stage, consulting services were provided on: (a) formation, collection, allocation and use of public funds (taxes and other means) and (b) different ways of reorganization of former agricultural farms into independent units subordinated to the local council. In the process we were able to note that, taking into account the important amount of arrears of these collective farms to the local budgets, an acceptable solution would be the launching of a procedure of forced imposition, in conformity with the Law on Following of Local and State Taxes. There is a possibility that, according to the Law on Bankruptcy, the local council takes under its property and management land and facilities as compensation for existing debts to the local budget. Evidently, these compensating procedures cannot start without an active and decisive involvement of the local council and issuance of a court’s decision. Compensatory measures would have to be approved by the local council on the basis of the Law on Local Public Administration.
In the third stage, the Viitorul Foundation’s experts attempted to systematize the administrative and ?nancial competencies of the of?cers from the pilot mayoralties, organizing local and regional seminars. Numerous of?cers from adjacent areas were also invited. One of the lecturers was an expert in public ?nance from the municipality of Brasov, Romania. Within the framework of these seminars, it has become apparent that there is a stringent need for a law on local public ?nance, which would establish a clear distinction between state and local budget incomes. In parallel, the experts of the Foundation presented to the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova a draft of the Law on Local Public Finance that would establish the conditions of the functioning of the ?nancial autonomy in direct correlation with the provisions of the Law on Budget System and Process and the Law on Following of Local and State Taxes (which needs to be modi?ed in order to be compatible with the status of an effective local ?nancial autonomy). The modi?cation of the Law on Budget System and Process has to lead to the dismantling of the centralized system at both the national and the regional levels. On the other hand, the consolidation of local ?nancial autonomy cannot take effect without modifying some provisions of the Law on Local Public Administration, which would provide for the remuneration of local councilors and the introduction of personnel with economic quali?cations in the structure of local public authorities (?scal inspectors). The mayoralty of the village of Zaim, at the request of the population, has managed to construct a train station, building on the argument that the railway station was far from the village and citizens were forced to spend a disproportionate amount of time to get there. In addition, it was possible to repair three kilometers of the railway, the school building has been partially renovated and equipment for study rooms has been purchased. The works have been ?nanced from sources obtained from leasing lakes and other premises.
Public Services
Public services represent activities with a clear social character, executed in the general interest of the community. The role of local authorities in a country with a market economy is to offer its citizens those basic services and essential goods that the market is incapable of delivering ef?ciently, equitably, in quantity and with quality adequate to the satisfaction of the legitimate necessities of individuals or local communities. Within the framework of the Local Development in Innovative Villages Program we tried to support local authorities in taking decisive and calculated steps in the identi?cation of public interests. Many local, intercommunal and regional seminars have had the objective of identifying social and economic policies that would favor ef?cient local development. The main argument of the mayors against such policies is usually the lack of legal grounds and ?nancial resources. But the actual legal framework does permit speci?c reform initiatives. Thus, according to Article 109 of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, one of the basic principles of the local public administration represents the decentralization of public services. In conformity with Article 61 of the Law on Local Public Administration, the local council organizes administrative or technical public services of the mayoralty and the regional executive committee according to local needs within the limits of the law and available ?nancial resources. Public services have their own attributes, being governed through regulations approved by local councils under the respective law. The local council itself has to decide what kind of public services have to be organized on the property of their community, who has to offer them (public or private sector), whether they are legal and administrative entities (municipal enterprise or private company), and their viability and contribution to the local budget. The population of these administrative-territorial units should be considered, ?rst of all, the most appropriate clients ready to pay a reasonable price for the respective services.
Unfortunately, the legal framework in Moldova did not provide, until the end of 1998, a clear distinction between the competency of different levels of public administration in offering public services, i.e., between public services provided by the central public administration and the decentralized public services transferred under the authority of the local administration. The situation will improve once the recently adopted Law on Local Public Administration is put in place; it introduces the function of administrative director as a representative of the government in the territorial-administrative unit of the second level with the responsibility to head decentralized public services.
The experts at the Viitorul Foundation have evaluated the obstacles in the development of local public administration and the possible ways of their being solved. Presently, the greatest part of the population from villages does not bene?t from public services. Local councils have retracted from organizing such services: former houses of social services do not function anymore, former facilities with social character—public baths, barber shops and repair shops—are signi?cantly damaged or have simply disappeared. Previously, costs of their functioning and maintenance were extensively covered by the collective farms, while those of the houses of social services were paid by the regional departments of social services. In the period of transition to the market economy, the collective farms have become totally inef?cient and practically bankrupt. Obviously, under such conditions, facilities housing public services have been neglected by the local powers. The situation was worsened by the fact that the mayoralties could not ?nd a new owner or had been waiting for decisions from the central government. Currently, the former houses of "public services" have been left with totally outdated and inappropriate equipment, if any at all. The population is forced to use the services of regional centers that are also inadequate. Because of the chronic lack of ?nancial and material means the baths do not function, and the repair of the water, sewage and cleaning systems has not been undertaken. This continuous decay of the quality of life has discredited the institutional reasons for which the bodies of local self-administration have been formed. The greatest part of those interviewed in January 1998 by the Viitorul Foundation answered that the people of the villages rarely seek assistance from the mayoralty: 76.5% in Chircaiesti, 62.8% in Costesti and 70.9% in Dominteni. Unfortunately, a whole series of disadvantages will mark the future consolidation of the economic infrastructure, including: (1) decreased income per capita, which diminishes the local demand for goods and services, inhibits the population from investing in and launching new businesses; (2) structuring of economies around agriculture and other sectors dependent on weather conditions; (3) weak administrative capacity of natural resources; (4) high unemployment.
To improve the chances of the community, the local authorities can and must count more on private initiative—a fact that has been con?rmed by the results of the questionnaire. In response to the question, "What kind of public services would have to be provided in the community and who should offer them?" most of those interviewed5 mentioned tailoring services, barber/beauty shops, shoe repair services, public baths (presently these do not function), construction of a gas supply system, services for purchasing agricultural products and supplying services for local farmers. The respondents in Dominteni cited the need for a medical center, an oil mill and a club house; in Chircaiesti respondents sought sport facilities, including a stadium. Those questioned6 have unanimously remarked about the lack of marketplaces appropriately equipped to handle the sale of agricultural products. In this context, it has to be mentioned that the new local NGOs, taking into account these opinions, immediately attempted to create such markets with the help of foreign investors. The local NGOs, together with local authorities, are also taking part in different programs, such as organizing services for agricultural consulting and the purchase of agricultural products, providing ecological education and overseeing actions for environmental protection. In order for these local public services to become viable, those interviewed7 considered it appropriate for many services to be offered by the private sector, with the local council remaining in charge of coordination and control. Establishing the necessary conditions for offering public services by private agents is bene?cial for the local community because these economic agents will contribute to the local budget via taxes. A series of local initiatives has con?rmed this. The local council of Chircaiesti in the region Causeni in 1998 started a service to supply the local population with drinking water under a statute of an independent unit of the mayoralty (in the past all the expenses related to the supply of drinking water were covered by the local collective farm). This service had to establish separate accounting procedures regarding expenses incurred and a special account to collect the fees. Also, in Chircaiesti, a group of citizens has shown interest in pro?ting from the privatization of the former collective farm by introducing a technological line for the production of cheese, which, unfortunately, had never been used before. The goal is to establish a private milk-processing ?rm (there are almost 850 cows in the village). Currently, the population is forced to sell the milk products in Causeni or Tighina (10 and 20 km, respectively). Since the main elements are present—equipment, owner, local resources—it is believed that the development of this initiative will create the foundation of a new, promising public service by the end of 1998. This service has to combine the private interest (the pro?t from selling milk and producing cheese) with the needs of the community (taxes levied for the local budget).
In the village of Costesti the municipal ?rm "Costesti-Garlea" (specializing in offering to farms such services as soil treatment, chemical plant protection and cultivation of multi-annual plants) has been reorganized into several micro?rms as a transition from collective farms to local centers specializing in technical services, consulting in agriculture, supplying growers with seeds and acquiring agricultural products. In order to organize new public services in cooperation with the local mayoralties, a number of those who are unemployed have been selected and sent to training courses to learn how to perform services necessary to the community. In this case the mayoralty obtains a double gain: organizing new public services which will increase the local budget’s tax base and decreasing the ranks of unemployed. Sometimes, however, the local administration is too small to ef?ciently provide the range of public services needed (especially in the case when the service may be delivered more ef?ciently and at a lesser cost for a larger area), which is the case of Dominteni in the Drochia region. Furthermore, it is not necessary that every local administrative-territorial unit has to provide, by itself, a full range of public services. What has to be promoted, especially for smaller communities (but not exclusively), is the concept of intercommunal cooperation with the purpose of offering public services together. It is also necessary to develop an understanding of the fact that such cooperation usually generates important economic, social and ?nancial bene?ts, and thus represents in many cases the only justi?able alternative.
Local economic development represents a process of modernization in the way the community satis?es its growing needs. The local communities can achieve this aim through assuming some essential priorities: assistance to the private sector, optimal utilization of local resources and creation of new workplaces. Without a doubt, the local public authorities, being a decisive factor in the elaboration of policies of local development, represent the institutional ground for any project of change. They also remain the main initiator of programs of local development and have been given the administrative power to manage and regulate the implementation of these programs. Moreover, the local public administration can and must employ private initiative in implementing economic development, as such economic agents represent the locomotive for local development. This alliance between the local public authorities and the private sector represents the common responsibility of the public and private sectors to solve problems and achieve common goals, including those of maintaining a positive social, political and economic environment at the level of the community. The design of an individual strategy for local development should be seen only within the broader context of the political and economic reforms carried on in the country. To better understand the actions undertaken by the public authorities at the local level, we will examine certain essential characteristics of the economy of Moldova in the transition period.
Impact of reforms in agriculture. The agricultural sector, which provides jobs for over 50% of the employable population, along with the food industry, currently ensures almost 60% of total Moldovan output and 75% of exports. The preservation of socialist-type farms, which used to receive considerable ?nancial support from the state, in the period of governance of the Democratic Agrarian Party of Moldova (DAPM) in 1994-1998, has resulted in a majority of these farms facing bankruptcy. For instance, in the collective farms in Dominteni, Chircaiesti and Costesti, debts are signi?cantly higher than pro?ts for the years 1996, 1997 and 1998. It is worth mentioning that the collective farm from Costesti was liquidated at the end of 1997 without any regret on the part of the population. According to statistical data, in 1997, privatized land, representing just 13% of the total, generated more than half of the total output in agriculture despite all the dif?culties faced by free farmers. These arguments have led villagers to ask for land privatization. Thus, presently, over 700 farms have been registered with the National Land Program, which deals with land privatization. The farms from Chircaiesti and Dominteni have also registered with the program. Out of one million people who have the right to receive land, 45% live in the north, 37% in the center and 18% in the south of the country. However, according to the statistics, the privatization process takes place most intensively in the central regions and less in the northern ones. As of 1997, 63.3% of the new landowners that received land beginning in July 1996 were from the central region. The percentage of new owners from the total number of farmers represent 55.7% in Chircaiesti (south), 53.5% in Costesti (center) and 6.4% in Dominteni (north). The privatization process in the north of the country is slower because of different administrative barriers imposed by the local bureaucracy, which had been "satis?ed" with the existing system. The new owners in the north face numerous barriers created by the collective farms. These problems start with the distribution of land and ?nish with the harvest. For example, according to Vasile Leahu, a new landowner, to prepare one hectare of land for seeding, an individual farmer from Dominteni had to pay monthly almost USD 120 for services of leasing of agricultural equipment from the collective farm in 1997. Nevertheless, as stressed by the academician Ilie Untila, one hectare of land processed by individual farmers can yield a pro?t of USD 820 on average compared to USD 220 in the case of collective farms.
Moldovan exports and the Russian ?nancial crisis. The political forces controlling economic mechanisms have directed the economic output of Moldova towards the eastern (former USSR) markets, thus tying the Moldovan national economy to the economic and ?nancial situation of these respective countries. The Russian crisis produced serious distress in Moldova. With purchases accounting for over 60% of Moldovan exports, Russia remains its most important economic partner. The loss incurred as a result of the Russian crisis has been valued at approximately USD 100 million. The political forces which insisted on the maintenance of Moldovan exports in the former USSR markets have assessed only the immediate pro?ts, totally neglecting an almost intolerable dependence on the economic and ?nancial situation in the CIS. Russia remains up to now one of the most important importers of goods from Moldova—a fact that contributed to the transfer of the Russian ?nancial crisis to Moldova. The redirection of exports from traditional markets towards Western markets is a major problem for the actual government. Within the Program, our experts have made considerable efforts to educate and train local producers in ?nding business solutions and learning the legal procedures and management conditions of the market economy.
Land Reform
Agriculture—the most important sector of the socialist economy of Moldova—is presently facing a deep crisis. Regretfully, we have to note that up to now the process of land privatization has not been ?nalized; the land has not really become private property. According to Articles 12 and 13 of the adopted Land Code, the transfer of ownership to farmers had to take place both in the form of land, for which the peasants would receive certi?cates of ownership, and other ?xed assets owned by former collective farms as of the date of enforcement of the Law on Privatization (August 7, 1991). In reality, in some cases peasants have been given only certi?cates of ownership of nonexistent land lots. A detailed analysis of land privatization presented by the Agency for Restructuring in Agricultural shows that out of one million Moldovan citizens who have the right to own land, only slightly over 176 thousand people have received certi?cates of ownership for land as of March 1998. According to assessments, the share of privatized land represents only 14.4% of the land to be privatized. The transition from collective farming to private farming can be considered from a variety of aspects. The most important aspect appears to be psychological: new owners are unprepared for professionalism, ignore the legal framework, are not able to use modern agricultural techniques and have a reduced capacity to react to the new conditions of the market economy. We stress several typical rural situations:
? Constant lack of information regarding modern agricultural technology, ?nance and management, external economic activities;
? Weak knowledge of standards and procedures of certi?cation of agricultural production, limited access to markets and consulting services;
? Lack of supply-acquisition services;
? Insuf?cient ?nancing of the agricultural sector, high cost of obtaining credits (interest 24% per year).
The central government de?nitely must implement and support models of rural economic development that would give private entrepreneurs the tools to overcome existing dif?culties. But until the state takes speci?c actions in the agricultural sector, a sizable impact may be obtained through associative action. The experience of the Viitorul Foundation in establishing intercommunal Consulting Centers provides real proof of the ef?cacy of such an approach. The of?ces of agricultural and marketing consulting formed with municipalities involve local authorities in offering services to agricultural producers. The of?ces engage people from former collective farms in a series of activities in which they are interested and which are pro?table for the municipalities of the respective communities, such as: application of modern technologies in agriculture, soil and plant protection, selection, zoological techniques, veterinary medicine, automation, accounting, management, marketing, promotion of exports, identi?cation of agricultural markets, and banking and crediting.
This initiative would accelerate the ability to solve many local problems by eliminating the barriers faced by peasants today. In time, these autonomous structures of agricultural consulting and acquisition of agricultural products should ensure rapid modernization of the small local producers. The consulting of?ces, we believe, have a good perspective, and through cooperation with research centers, chambers of commerce and state organizations, they will become modern centers of economic guidance in Moldovan localities. In order to overcome the existing dif?culties and redirect private owners towards pro?table activities in the long term, the experts of the Viitorul Foundation have offered necessary informational and organizational assistance.
The mentoring groups that include the most active private owners, founded with the help of the Program’s experts, would represent an interesting case in this respect. Having attempted individual strategies to launch businesses, drafted together with their bene?ciaries, these core activities permitted entrepreneurs to obtain promising results in their business experiences. Among these practices we will stress, in particular: the exports undertaken by Mr. Mereacre, an independent farmer from Costesti; the ef?cient cultivation of vegetables by Mr. Nicolae Chiperi, an entrepreneur from Chircaiesti; and the formation of a distribution network of building materials in Drochia by Mr. A. Leahu, an entrepreneur from Dominteni. These are only several instances of individuals who relied on our assistance in implementing their business projects. It is important to mention that this assistance offered to local entrepreneurs creates a special direction for the program of "positive learning" of local public authorities in their relationships with the representatives of the private sector. Within the framework of the agricultural reform in these localities and by striving for an ef?cient use of existing economic potential, new models of activity for existing branches may thrive within the context of a specialization in and undertaking of pro?table activities that account for the accessibility of markets, the traditional cultures of these areas and their productivity.
Towards an Interactive Relation between Local Authorities
and their Clients
Social and Political Interests at the Local Level
The transition has followed and reproduced, in general, a socialist type of administration, transposing it within the political system instituted by the Declaration of Independence of 1991. This happened not only because the state and the local administration have employed people from the former system, but also, to a larger extent, because this administration has maintained the functions that it possessed during the old system. Administration may be shaped into two forms: under the model of democracies of modern inspiration, where it has to offer services to the people (such as health care, waste management, drinking water or an urban transportation system), or under the model of socialist inspiration where the administration is primarily dealing with the absorption of local resources, management and control of the population instead of the services it has to offer. A typical example is represented by the noisy but totally inef?cient functioning of regional executive committees. Their direct function in Moldova is to interfere in speci?c problems of the local authorities (even against the provisions of national legislation). This implies reasons of state or corroborative importance and, subsequently, succeeds in distributing resources (collected under a national system of taxation) to the preferred political clients of the governing authority. Changing the mechanisms of legitimacy of these administrations has not always achieved a change in the relationship between them and the population. By maintaining the old form of subordinated and controlling relations, the hierarchical pyramid of decision-making is kept; the primary (actually, inferior) levels of administrative and political decision-making are neglected and used only as a simple tool that motivates the goals derived from the "superior level" of the central administration.
One of the main criteria in selecting the three pilot villages were their representative features—geographic, social, economic and political—that permitted the identi?cation of attitudes, behaviors and reactions typical of an environment which only recently has been familiarized with pluralist values, although they are still in?uenced by paternalistic chimeras and stereotypes inherited from the old regime. The monitoring of the electoral evolution in these villages and its relation to the pro?le of the groups of in?uence that appeared during this period was of special interest. The program neither performed nor promoted political espionage, collecting the data only within the limits of surveys and community seminars related to the development of the respective localities. For an easier presentation of the results we have grouped these opinions depending on the economic positions adopted by political parties (February 1994). The Alliance of National Christian Democratic Front (AFPCD), the Block of Peasants and Intellectuals (BTI), the Party of Reforms (PR) and the Democratic Party of Labor (PDM), all the closest to the economic right in terms of their programs, proposed in 1994 the acceleration of economic reforms and support of the private sector, land privatization and redesign of the national strategy of economic development. From the center-leftist and leftist parties, which proposed the maintenance of collective farms in villages and which opposed land privatization, were the Democratic Agrarian Party of Moldova (PDAM), the Socialist Party and Political Movement "Unitatea-Edinstvo" (PSMUE). Thus, according to this correlation, the electorate of the villages—Dominteni, Chircaiesti and Costesti (including adjacent areas)—has voted as follows:
Table 3
Locality Vote: Vote:
Rightist Parties Center and Center-Leftist Parties
1. Total for region Drochia 9.92% 78.8%
2. Dominteni 8.21% 87.00%
3. Total for region Causeni 38.48% 39.87%
4. Chircaiesti 78.80% 8.93%
5. Total for region Ialoveni 40.50% 33.57%
6. Costesti 70.45% 15.94%
Casting their vote for the rightist parties, the population of Chircaiesti and Costesti supported, ?rst of all, the economic options that the respective parties were offering. Because of this support the economic reforms in these villages (the number of free farmers and land privatization) have progressed faster than in the village of Dominteni (north). In this context, however, it should be noted that the collective farm in Costesti was liquidated in 1997. It is also signi?cant that almost 70% of the electorate of the villages of Chircaiesti and Costesti (regions Causeni and Ialoveni, respectively) voted in 1994 for the rightist parties (compared to the 40% regional vote for the leftist parties). In its turn, the electorate in Dominteni voted massively for center-left (PDAM): over 87% (compared to 78.8% for the whole region). In the local elections of April 1995 the coalition which included almost all of the rightist political parties, the Alliance of the Democratic Forces (AFD), totaled more than 30% and 36.7% of the votes cast in the Causeni and Ialoveni regions, respectively. In the Drochia region, almost 10.4% of the electorate voted for AFD. The party which dominated the electoral options in the north of the country (including Drochia) was the PDAM. It received 60% of the votes, including 48.35% in Ialoveni and 30% in Causeni. The results of the voting have shown an even more important support at the level of the villages of Chircaiesti (65.2%) and Costesti (68.6%) for AFD, but also a massive vote for PDAM (100%) in Dominteni.
Table 4
Locality Eligible Voted Valid For For For For CI CI
to vote votes AFDAFD PDAPDA PSMUE
1.Chircaesti 2,523 1,526 1,288 839 (65.2%) 397 (30.8%) 52 (4.0%) 0
–councilors 9 4 0
–mayor 1
2.Dominteni 1,191 1,180 1,134 0 1,134 0 0
–councilors (100%)
–mayor 11
1
3.Costesti 6,904 2,385 2,077 1,425 348 (16.8%) 89 (4.2%) 215 (10%)
–councilors (68.6%)
–mayor
The electoral results in 1994 have determined the slowdown and even stoppage of structural reforms in the Republic of Moldova, tendencies that have been profoundly experienced by the population of the pilot villages. We tried to correlate the number of votes obtained by the parties in these localities (in 1994) with the number of private farms (serving as an indicator of intensity in promotion of agricultural reforms). The way the process has evolved can be assessed with the help of the following results as illustrated by Table 5.Table 5
Dominteni Chircaiesti Costesti
Number of free landowners 42 1,602 3,630
As % of the total population 6.4% 55.7% 53.5%
Compared to the scrutiny of 1994, most of the populations of the respective villages opted in 1998 for political parties that offered clear programs of economic reform. In the March 1998 elections, the Democratic Convention of Moldova (CDM), the Party of Democratic Forces (PFD) and the Block for a Democratic and Prosperous Moldova (BpMDP), which later formed a parliamentary alliance (ADR), put forth quite similar platforms: the extension of economic reforms, the prioritization of the role of the private sector in economic development and the privatization of land. Opposed to them, the Communist Party of Moldova (PCM) offered to the electorate a program dominated by Soviet-type slogans for intensive economic development, predominance of the state sector and cancellation of ownership reforms. It is relevant that in 1998 the electorate of the pilot localities supported at a higher rate the parties proposing reforms compared to the neighboring localities who cast their ballots as if they were "detached" from their voting traditions.
Table 6
Locality PCM CD PFD BpMDP CD. PFD.
BpMDP
1. Total for region Drochia 35.39% 16.25% 7.18% 15.94% 39.37%
2. Dominteni 8.70% 10.35% 5.51% 49.71% 65.57%
3. Total for region Causeni 18.94% 29.10% 6.85% 18.34% 54.29%
4. Chircaiesti 6.45% 65.10% 3.89% 9.27% 78.29%
5. Total for region Ialoveni 19.25% 28.40% 13.05% 15.98% 57.43%
6. Costesti 16.55% 45.18% 7.78% 14.39% 67.35%
According to our evaluation, the forces behind the results of 1998 were the free farmers, especially those who "have tasted success" and who will consequently support the acceleration of rural reforms in the future. Presently, the free farmers represent approximately 64.4% of the population eligible to vote in Chircaiesti and 48.8% in Costesti. It can be implied, therefore, that the vote for ADR (78.26% and 67.57%, respectively) is associated with the choice in favor of the market economy. Most of the population of Dominteni has voted for the economic reforms as well (65.57%) due to the fact that the economic situation in the local collective farm has worsened signi?cantly in the last years (huge debts, unpaid salaries, etc.). On the other hand, those few free farmers from the locality have managed to prove to the entire village what can be achieved by working independently and by putting into effect the concept of private property. The visible conclusion is that there is a stable evolution of attitudes of the population seeking structural changes in agriculture, and in the continuation of reforms being determined by the existence of positive expectations from objectives with an impact over the performance of the new social groups. It is clearly noticeable that in the localities where privatization has advanced, and where the farmers’ movement is powerful, the percentage of votes expressed for PCM has declined considerably. Two out of the most important center-leftist and leftist parties (PSMUE and PDAM) were extensively rejected in 1998 by the electorate (especially the former governing party) due to their ineffective leftist policies. However, some elements of Soviet doctrine still persist in the public and economic life of the country. PCM has been accepted by nostalgic people in a large number of rural localities. Opposed to them, PCM has obtained an insigni?cant number of votes in the villages participating in the Local Development in Innovative Villages Program.
Assessment of Impact of Political and Economic Reforms
The assessment of attitudes of the population from those three pilot localities was extremely productive for the Program. Two representative surveys conducted in January and July of 1998 provide the evidence. The results present the shape of an interesting dynamic for understanding the changes produced in the rural environment, in general, and in the villages of Costesti (Ialoveni), Chircaiesti (Causeni) and Dominteni (Drochia). The results of the polls were able to detect the way the surveyed population assessed the credibility of the local powers, the attitude of the people towards economic development, the activity of the mayoralty and the dif?culties faced by their community. In response to the question, "Do you think that in your village matters evolve in a good or in a wrong way?" almost 41.6% in July and 38.8% in January answered af?rmatively; 25.5% in July and 35.5% in January answered negatively; and 25.5% in July and 32.5% in January did not know or could not answer. In the survey of July 1998, in response to the question, "Do you believe that the new free peasants will speed up the economic development in your village?" almost 48.2% answered af?rmatively, 22.9% negatively and 28.3% could not answer, which infers our previous hypothesis regarding the reexamination of the role of the new free farmers in determining economic development. In this context we wish to cite the statement of Mr. Tudor Cozub, a free farmer from Dominteni who is 64 years old:
I have been a free farmer for more than one year now. The harvest I obtained in the autumn of 1997 was good. Selling a part of the harvest I have managed to pay the state taxes while those working in the collective farms could not honor their liabilities since they were not remunerated by the farm for many months. I am able, at the moment, to provide foodstuff for all the families on my street. The fact that the land is my own property makes me continuously think over the improvement of its treatment methods, of the next year’s harvest, of the success of tomorrow.
Another way of solving ?nancial problems lies in the creativity of the of?cers of respective mayoralties. The example of the mayoralty in Stauceni is encouraging. This mayoralty has largely insisted, and even directly helped, the owners of microbuses from the locality to open a new passenger transportation route between Stauceni and Chisinau. Agreeing with the mayoralty of the capital, it has been decided that taxes levied on the owners of the microbuses for their respective routes will be split evenly. Thus the mayoralty has managed to obtain a supplementary and quite large source of ?nancing, which allowed it to solve many social problems. In the same respect, to the question, "How important is the role of the mayoralties in the local development?" 63.8% of those interviewed in January 1998 viewed the role as important or very important. In July this number grew to over 78%. Most of those questioned have a negative attitude toward almost all the institutions included in the questionnaire. The only exception was the church, which was trusted by over 50.7% of the population in January and 54.8% in July. All other institutions gained a limited degree of trust, and the shift in opinions between the two surveys was insigni?cant. Most of the population wants to see greater assistance to the private sector coming from the mayoralty. To the question, "Do you think that the mayoralty should be involved more actively in supporting private initiative in the village?" 70.8% answered af?rmatively in Costesti, 92.5% in Chircaiesti and 75.6% in Dominteni. It is also clear that the free farmers will further represent an important element of local power.
Obviously, the local public authorities cannot neglect these attitudes. Rather, they must adjust their policies to the pro?le and initiatives of the local private sector. Answering the question, "What do you think are the obstacles in the development of the village?" most of those interviewed (72.3%) have indicated the "lack of ?nancial means" as the most serious problem. Other noteworthy answers included the "incompetence of the local administration" (10.8%). In order to contribute to the solution of ?nancial problems, the Viitorul Foundation, in cooperation with the representatives of the Agency for Implementation of the Project of Rural Financing, has started to organize local mutual and credit associations. Furthermore, due to the contacts initiated by the Foundation with the experts of CFR (Rural Financial Corporation) and AMM (Micro?nancing Association of Moldova) associated with FIDES (Finance pour le Developpement Economique et Sociale), a group of 50 farmers in Chircaiesti has obtained a ?rst round of ?nancing. It is expected that after paying back the loan, the group will obtain more ?nancing with more favorable conditions. The model of rural ?nancing promoted by the Agency for Implementation of the Project of Rural Financing has provoked strong interest in the northern part of the country (in the villages of Dominteni, Petreni, So?a, Cotova and other localities neighboring the city of Balti), which has led us believe that we will soon be able to extend the area of implementation of the Program to other localities. In this way, considerable ?nancial resources that will contribute to resolving numerous problems can be directed towards rural communities. In this respect, in response to the question, "Do you think that the establishing of loan and savings associations in your village will solve the ?nancial and economic problems of their members?" almost 62% answered af?rmatively. At the same time, more than half of those questioned (50.6%) do not know about or do not have information regarding potential sources of ?nancing.
Civic Involvement and Conditions of Emergence
for a Civil Society
Sharing responsibilities and powers of decision with its citizens. An ef?cient administration ?nds it necessary and useful to share its responsibilities and decision-making powers with the citizens of the community, thus amplifying ef?ciency in achieving targeted goals. To concentrate the local energy and initiative on solving such social problems, the Viitorul Foundation has encouraged and supported the establishment of local NGOs in rural areas. In Moldova rural NGOs represent groups of citizens who can operate more independently than governmental agencies, and who can approach problems that local public authorities cannot address because of lack of time, interest or resources. These organizations, formed bottom-up, are generated by local interest in exploring the possibilities of association or ?nancing. In such a way their success can substitute for the de?ciencies of a local community and may bring services that local authorities cannot offer to the people that they represent. Following this logic, within the framework of the Program we have managed to monitor the launching of ?ve rural NGOs from the pilot villages, which we subsequently assisted in obtaining individual grants and af?liating with certain regional programs.8 Below, we stress the instruments used by these rural NGOs that have managed to identify and approach the main problems of their communities. In the north, for example, in Costesti in the Rascani region a "Council of Old Men" met and decided to build a well on the condition that the local community will use its own resources for technical assistance, construction materials, workers, etc. The local NGO "Mostenitorii," assuming the initiative, will ?nish the program in January 1999. Also, in the north of the country in the village of Dominteni the NGO "Ghiocel" and the mayoralty launched a survey to identify the key problems cited by the population. As a result, these objectives have materialized into the following projects: the building of an agricultural marketplace, the cleaning of wells and the building of a leisure park. The population has contributed in different ways as will be cited below.
In Costesti, Ialoveni, the local organization "Rusticum," together with the representatives of the local council, have decided that it is necessary to take speci?c actions to improve the ecological situation of the village. As a result, they have obtained grants to assist a project to plant trees and to clean a portion of the Botna River, which runs through the village. These actions will be followed by civic education programs (via schools and economic units of the locality).
The organization "Terra" from Chircaiesti has initiated a plan for strategic cooperation with the mayoralty and the local council. Setting the goal of creating an interface between citizens and the local public authority, "Terra" has succeeded in obtaining the support of the free farmers and the intellectuals from the school to initiate a series of actions in the community. Among the ?rst programs for which it initially obtained ?nancing are the construction of a market for agricultural products and the building of a facility for collecting agricultural products. Both programs have represented a happy continuation of the efforts previously undertaken by the Viitorul Foundation to enhance the connection between entrepreneurs and the mayoralty in the development of the locality.
In the village of Talmaza, Stefan Voda, the rural organization "Renasterea," along with a Council of the Elderly, identi?ed the needs of the village by organizing surveys. As a result, a program to reconstruct wells, clean water sources and perform a chemical analysis of the well water was identi?ed as the most convenient for the local community.
The population af?rmed its preparedness to share the responsibility with the decision-makers in accomplishing certain tasks of common interest during the process of establishing partnerships for social action. Thus, by understanding the importance of the reconstruction of wells in Dominteni, certain individuals have brought speci?c initiatives to the local mayoralty in order to participate in the projects with their own building materials and ?nancial resources. At the same time they have assumed the responsibility of maintaining the respective wells in the future. In Chircaiesti after the NGO "Terra," together with the local administration, launched the initiative to construct an agricultural market, many local farmers showed their willingness to participate by using their own resources to help construct the market. The construction is presently in its last stages. At the same time, the persons who will employ their own resources to oversee the functioning of the agricultural market have already been chosen.
In the village Costesti a group of citizens has assumed the environmental responsibility to protect a green area along the Botna River. After obtaining ?nancial resources, some of these organizations, "Rusticum" and "Terra," continue to issue local bulletins in Costesti and Chircaiesti. The local bulletins were initiated by the Viitorul Foundation and have grown in popularity among citizens. The mayoralty from Costesti and "Rusticum" have agreed on the basic principles of sharing public responsibilities, aiming in this way to increase the degree of transparency in the activities of local powers and cultivating a better understanding of community interests among the citizens. The initiative of citizens can mobilize the energy of the local community for different tasks. Often this initiative can become stressful for local authorities, especially when citizens wish to monitor speci?c critical processes for the well-being of the community, or when ensuring that public money is used ef?ciently or justi?es the cost of public services. In Cosiesti this problem has suddenly appeared in relation to the distribution of value-equivalent shares to the citizens after the reorganization of the former collective farm. In this situation many public of?cers had to cope with their own predetermined opinions. Despite all the ?nancial dif?culties faced by the society, this starting point that reformulates the concept of local development can only positively contribute with the fresh human and material resources available for solving local problems. Simultaneous with the forming of partnerships at the local level, local authorities have to review their relationships with the central government (which no longer represents a post through which it can command and sanction, but rather one that offers an effective partnership).
Improvement of Performance of Locally Elected Of?cials
and Public Of?cers
The authority of local councils with the population depends on competence and good will. For local organizations, in order to truly become representative authorities capable of managing the developmental interests of the community, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the interest of the community and of a local developmental project acceptable to the community. This general project can be shaped only through a large number of special, smaller projects and ?nanced with the community’s public money and external resources. Within the Local Development through Innovative Villages Program the training of local councilors and public of?cers was a priority. Over 60 communal and intercommunal seminars, training courses and workshops—with the participation of representatives of the local public authorities from the pilot villages and neighboring localities and local NGOs—were run in a relatively short period of time within the Program. Generalizing the results of the seminars we found that one reason that determines the diminishing credibility of local authorities relates to their noninvolvement, or even refusal, to assume responsibilities for good administration of public matters by local councilors. Some councilors still consider the local council as a purely formal local body associated with the former Soviet-type village councilors; it never acted as a major defender of the local community interests and ignored its true attributes and rights as representatives of local power. A reason for the lack of interest is that, according to the former Law on Local Public Administration, local councilors were not reimbursed, even symbolically, for the efforts they made in the interest of the community. As a consequence, their participation in the administration of local matters was not democratic in character.
Starting with the sessions of local councils, we were able to detect that our initiatives generated encouraging responses among councilors, and stimulated the dialogue and the desire to make use of the tools of "local democracy." At the suggestion of the Foundation, local councilors began to invite citizens from the village to their sessions (which previously had a strictly closed character), and thus began to stimulate alternative efforts to solve the dif?culties in administration of local assets, which had previously been weakly de?ned by legislation. The budget is a serious challenge for the local council. For the great majority of local authorities from Moldova it is almost a general rule that the persons in charge of managing the local budget do not have professional experience in this strategic ?eld and do not possess the necessary knowledge in managing realistic budgets. Given these conditions, the pilot villages have been organizing seminars and training courses for specialists with the participation of experts in local public ?nance from Brasov (Romania). The topics were related to the drafting of the local budget, planning of incomes and expenses, collecting local taxes and ?nding other sources of ?nance.
Solutions to Social Problems: Rural Unemployment
Unemployment represents one of the most stringent social problems of the transition in Moldova. Sometimes people seem not to recall that, in the period of the communist regime, quasi-full employment represented just the facade of hidden unemployment; peasants in collective farms were forced to work in conditions of hunger for small salaries. The economic decline of the last few years and the stagnation of economic growth have aggravated unemployment and have led to uncontrollable growth in the number of unregistered unemployed. According to of?cial statistics, the actual number of registered unemployed represents only 28,000 people. However, according to the most optimistic of?cial estimate, the real unemployment ?gures are 10 or even 20 times larger.9 Every second of?cially registered unemployed person is below the age of 30, and every ?fth has never had a permanent position (this ?gure particularly relates to graduates from medium and high-level institutions of education). Every fourth registered unemployed person received bene?ts for unemployment totaling in 1997, on average, MDL 82 per month. Women represented 63% of the unemployed. On the other hand, the economic recession "encourages" people to look for jobs in foreign countries. The National Bank of Moldova estimates that approximately 20,000 Moldovan citizens presently work abroad. Out of these, approximately 15,000 people work in Russia and other CIS countries, or in countries such as Germany, Israel, Greece and Cyprus. The consequences of unemployment are accompanied by a high degree of social passivity, criminality and intolerance. People without work more tacitly feel the difference between their income and that of individuals who have managed to start a private business. As a result, unemployment accentuates the inclination of some groups to interpret the evolution of the last years through the prism of "differences of social layers," feeding discontent with the political system in Moldova and the reforms it has initiated.
Few of those who are unemployed usually apply to the of?cial placement services. We will not cite all the reasons that prevent people from seeking assistance and social aid when they are unemployed. It is clear that the diminishing number of individuals gainfully employed in the agrarian sector along with the privatization of the former collective farms represent a disruptive and extremely painful process. Therefore, retraining the workforce and its reemployment through local services are necessary for the local community to maintain a viable economic and social base. According to the data of the mayoralties of the villages of Costesti, Chircaiesti and Dominteni in 1998, these localities experienced a relatively reduced number of individuals "legally" unemployed: 135, 2 and 2 persons, respectively. At the same time, everybody recognizes that the number of individuals effectively unemployed is far higher. For example, in Chircaiesti the number of jobless was 635 in 1998, of which 332 were women and 303 men (almost half of the economically active population). In Dominteni and Costesti approximately 75 and 732, respectively, constituted the real number of those unemployed in 1998. Clearly, such a situation is quite common for most of the country’s villages. It is necessary, therefore, to identify the actions that can be undertaken by local authorities in order to make better use of the available workforce. Beginning in January 1998, the Viitorul Foundation managed to promote the retraining of several groups of unemployed who were residents of pilot localities within the Local Development in Innovative Villages Program. With this initiative the Foundation tried to identify the elements of a strategy to eradicate unemployment through the creation of new public services and the cultivation of economic interest. Thus the retraining of the unemployed from rural localities has to become a priority. A new direction for the work of the mayoralty has to represent the support of people’s participation in entrepreneurial activities as an alternative to their poorly paid activity in the state sector. The mayoralties should not wait until the central authorities get involved in this process. When the village is able to offer its assistance to the unemployed, the local authorities have to combine this assistance with opportunities in small business and with the natural needs of the development of the infrastructure of public services.
From the beginning we have to stress that this project has been tailored to meet the speci?c needs of the population of Costesti, Chircaiesti and Dominteni. It did not try to replace the government’s programs for retraining those unemployed or to cover larger areas. The use of tenders to select candidates, the tests of further planning of services and the involvement of mayors in these initiatives have signaled a real need for the dissemination of knowledge at the level of local governance, i.e., a transfer of know-how for the acceleration of the contribution of local powers to the needs of the community in a way that these initiatives are associated with the techniques of formulating development strategies with their own resources. In the ?rst place, the Viitorul Foundation’s experts have selected people seeking new skills using written tests (excluding the possibility of "the vice of nepotism") in the following areas: logic, language skills and a description of the way that candidates would use the skills gained as a result of training. The training courses were carried out in one of the most well-equipped centers for professional training in Romania, Piatra-Neamt, during one month in which 10 out of 40 applicants took part in the ?rst stage (January 1998). In the second stage applications for the retraining courses starting in March 1998. Another 10 people were selected out of 55 candidates. Approximately 65% of these applications have been directed into services: barbers, tailors, cooks, etc., as it is believed that the employees from these ?elds are relatively well remunerated. Furthermore, it is relatively easy to launch a business in the service area, and there is no need for large investments and sophisticated equipment. The retraining is quick, inexpensive and the skills gained during these short courses can easily be veri?ed in practice.
We hoped that after graduating most of the participants could immediately be integrated into their chosen ?elds; approximately 15 of them began working in their villages. The role of local public authorities proved to be more important after the completion of the courses. According to a preliminary agreement, the mayoralty had to facilitate trainees integration into the network of existing services at the local level and even to provide them with the necessary conditions for work. In two out of ?ve cases the mayor found it necessary to intervene by offering unused facilities and other public assets; however, the mayor did not succeed in reducing the tax burden because of the lack of a law regarding local public ?nance. This new experience of directing the local public authorities towards providing positions for residents who were unemployed by starting public services has been appreciated by the population of these villages and was treated with much gratitude by the people who had almost lost any hope of getting a job. The idea of these courses was based on the hypothesis that, through acquiring new skills, unemployed workers can maximize their personal chance to ?nd a job or even to recreate a job that was missing or forgotten because of a constant lack of resources in the local budget. Thus we can af?rm that acquiring knowledge and skills was done for the good of the people involved, as well as, to a large degree, for the good of the entire local community.
The Emergence of a Model of Local Democracy in Moldova
Legal Reform
As other Central and Eastern European countries, freed from the dogmatism of the Communist Party, the Republic of Moldova started, after 1991, searching for and revising mechanisms speci?c to democratic societies with the purpose of setting clearer and determining better functions of the state and its constituencies.10 The founding of a legal state, synonymous with a democratic society, faces numerous dif?culties, partially inherited from the old regime but also due to our reduced capacity as once sterile consumers of ideologies to concentrate on precise, real problems instead of taking global approaches. This is also the case of local public administrations in Moldova, which—since July 10, 1991, when the Law on the Bases of Local Self-Administration was adopted—have evolved very slowly towards the modern model established on the principle of administrative decentralization and local autonomy that is accepted everywhere in Western and Eastern Europe. Up to now, under apparently different democratic forms, the rigid, outdated Soviet model of local administration has been preserved, since it appeared much more pro?table from the point of view of political or even personal interests of various high of?cials. Chronologically, we can identify three periods of evolution in searching for an ef?cient system of local public administration in Moldova.
The period from 1991 to the winter of 1994 is associated with the Parliament’s intent to implement a new system of local public administration, i.e., establishing the principles related to the basis of local self-administration, which could not have been implemented previously due to lack of political support.
The second stage from 1994 to the spring of 1997 was de?ned by the adoption on July 29, 1994, of a new Constitution, which incorporated fundamental principles and speci?c provisions for a new system of local public administration, such as: local autonomy, decentralization of public services, eligibility of local public services and consultation with citizens in local problems of special interest.11 Several months later, in December 1994, certain laws adopted by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova (on administrative-territorial organization, local public administration, local elections) established the foundation of a new system of local administration, although the legislation was marked by several contradictions and functional de?ciencies. Despite the critical references of some local experts, the Parliament adopted and integrated these proposals, thus legalizing a de?cient system from many points of view.
First of all, the law preserved the old administrative-territorial organization of the Republic of Moldova—that is the 40 regions representing the inheritance from the Soviet regime. On the other hand, the law on local public administration presented constitutional regulations of decentralization and local autonomy that were becoming invalid, however, through the exaggerated role of the regional executive committees and the interference of the central government which could change, remove or designate mayors elected by the local communities. These discrepancies solidi?ed the increasingly decorative character of the local public authorities in the general structure of the state. Their accumulated effect has generated an important number of mayors elected directly via the vote of the local community, as well as named by the President of Moldova or by local collectivities lacking their own local councils (which is also the case of the mayor of Chisinau). The overproduction of mayors appointed and mayors elected by executive committees instead of local councils has generated a system which contradicts the democratic principles of organization of the state and, more importantly, the principles of organization and functions of local public administration stipulated by the Constitution.
The third stage from the summer 1997 to the present has coincided with the efforts of executives and civil society to improve the actual system of local public administration. This coincidence has also produced changes in the behavior of governors and local collectivities. During 1996, the Government managed to prepare a new set of draft laws aimed at transforming the actual system of local public administration. Only in November 1998, after the election of a new Parliament, was it possible to adopt these new laws related to the administrative-territorial organization and local public administration followed by other laws on public ?nance and local public assets. The last legislative wave asserts the fact that the reform of local government is a natural, evolutionary process, which does not accept only mechanical copying of recognized institutional solutions, and that the system of local public administration, existing before 1998, has proved its incapacity to perform. Thus it has been substituted for by a new one.
Horizons of Implementation of Local Public
Administration Reform
The process of establishing a modern system of local public administration in the Republic of Moldova is impeded by a variety of unequal in?uences from internal and external factors. These factors’ impact over the functioning of a veritable local democracy constitutes the country’s relationship with international and European organizations, among which are the Council of Europe, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Without diminishing the role of external in?uences, we believe that the administrative reform could not have been initiated in early 1989 if a series of internal factors were not present. Among these are the associative, or nongovernmental, sector which proved its consistency and willingness to contribute by offering programs of assistance to the local communities, implementing a new system of public administration and offering alternatives to stop attempts to reactivate the totalitarian regime. The Viitorul Foundation represents one of these NGOs, which, beginning in 1995, has constantly dealt with monitoring and accelerating changes in public administration and promoting principles and values of local autonomy. The nongovernmental sector’s ef?ciency and involvement has been particularly important to this effort. After only one year the Viitorul Foundation has been sought out as an organization offering specialized training for public of?cers from different regions of the country and consulting services related to problems managing local resources. In 1997 the Department of Local Public Administration of the central government requested the Foundation to participate in the preparation of a new set of draft laws related to the implementation of a new system of public administration. According to an agreement with the Department, experts from the Foundation have presented to the Government of the Republic of Moldova three drafts of laws on the new administrative-territorial organization of the country: local public administration, local public ?nance and local public assets, thus constituting a coherent and necessary toolkit for consolidating the steps made in the direction of local autonomy and decentralization of local governance.
Only after adopting the new laws can the implementation of the real reform in the system of local public administration start. The success of local government, and the effective planning and marketing of reforms, depend, to a large degree, on the interplay of all those elements. Starting with the interests of the local community at the ?rst level (villages and towns), there is a need for connecting with the interests of the administrative-territorial unit of the second level (regions). This, in turn, has to be attuned to national interests. The reforms will succeed only when, at each level, the vital necessities of each community or administrative-territorial unit will be taken into consideration, so that all the efforts can be coordinated. Many of the actual local administrative-territorial units are too small to ef?ciently provide the services that they are supposed to offer to their citizens. In Moldova, an appropriate solution could promote either the merger of small communities (depending on certain economically justi?able criteria) into larger units or into associations of intercommunal cooperation (e.g., as in France or Germany) with the aim of supplying basic services. In the new Law on Local Public Administration the system of local ?nance does not provide any effective stimuli for the consolidation of the autonomy of local public administration units that allows for an improved use of their own incomes or rationing expenses. These observations also refer to the ?scal transfer system: it has to be clearer, more organized and more transparent in concordance with the objectives of macroeconomic stabilization. Another problem relates to the complexity of legal procedures of transfer of ownership over state assets for the property of local administrations (?rst and foremost, institutions offering public and private services).
For a more ef?cient public administration, especially in the period of transition to a market economy and legal democratic state, it is necessary to establish a strict delineation of the responsibilities of public authorities of the country (central government, prefect, the mayor and councils at all levels). Otherwise, the errors committed will be too costly, and many material and moral losses will be incurred by the public administration system. We consider it absolutely necessary to adopt a separate law which would regulate the speci?c forms of responsibilities (civil, administrative, penal, disciplinary) of all public employees who represent the authorities that deal with public administration at the central and local levels. It is natural that in the process of economic and political transition toward a free and democratic society these changes of administrative structures are evaluated by judgements that develop gradually and face perceptional changes over time. Evidently, similar problems of institutional and contradictory character appear even in politically stable countries. There are no ideal systems of administration to be copied from any country. Rather, the problem is of a different nature. It is necessary to search for certain characteristics of a system of local public administration capable of ?tting social, cultural, administrative and political speci?cs, but also of being combined with international standards of reference and authority.
The supply of public services, the improvement of the living standards of the population and the plenary representation of the interests of local communities are tasks that can be accomplished only by using a systematic approach based on the concepts and elements of local development. It represents a process and has as intermediary objectives the formulation of local public interest. By their speci?c status, local public authorities are obliged to adopt strategies of an ef?cient and judicious use of local resources towards creation of new workplaces, keeping individual freedoms, and growing the social and economic potential of the community. Local development is an integral part of local public administration since it represents a potential resource for delivering more chances of social progress to the respective communities. Local development cannot be realized without a methodical and consistent effort in planning and forecasting, which is a simple matter only in appearance. In Moldova, local public authorities are not, by far, equipped with the necessary elements for long-term strategic planning; the central government prefers to abuse the distribution of sporadic and discretionary donations rather than to accept a larger ?nancial autonomy at the local and regional levels, thus maintaining the conditions of local development for the country as a whole at an incipient stage and with unsecured results. The public administrations are not convinced that the planning of development can be useful, considering the acute feeling of instability and even cynicism that initiatives to revitalize local resources meet. Of course, numerous efforts have been made in the last few years to consolidate local powers; there are numerous examples when the mayors assumed the risk of managing public affairs as their own responsibility and under the control of local councilors. Sometimes they have even managed to produce examples to be followed. What are the grounds for these pioneering cases?
First of all, local councils have to identify the most preferable model for development of their respective region, tune it to other regional or national models and de?ne the objectives and priorities of the mayoralties for the short, medium and long term. The program of local development has to be a complex document. It is based on specialized research, designed with the assistance of the employees of the mayoralty (but not exclusively) and includes economic and social directions that can be separated into perspective projects such as: (1) developing infrastructure, (2) modernizing public services, (3) establishing new ventures and assisting small and medium-size enterprises, (4) restructuring and diversifying industrial units available in the territory, (5) improving the environment, (6) stimulating regional marketing activities to attract investments, (7) participating in international cooperation, organization and involvement in exhibitions, and (8) providing assistance for the unemployed.
Within the framework of community or municipal economic development, a special contribution has to be made by the private sector. One of the priorities of any local developmental project has to be this sector’s assistance in establishing private enterprises. Ef?cient local development may also appear in the case when the project can be extended to an intercommunity, interregional or even international level of association of material, social, cultural and demographic resources. (A good example is represented by either by the Transcarpathian region of Europe which integrates over one million people from ?ve neighboring countries of Eastern and Central Europe or by the region of the Inferior Danube, formed at the con?uence of the Prut and Danube Rivers between the Ukraine, Moldova and Romania, a territory with a population of over two million.) The elaboration of this program of economic development needs a clear understanding of assumed responsibilities, as well as the identi?cation of potential or forecast resources for a particular time segment. It is important in the process of implementing a new system of public administration to take into account the conceptual signi?cance of the reform of the local public administration, which represents not only an objective with political effects but also a problem of political philosophy, of interpretation of constitutional principles and of the free choice of citizens.
Dissemination of Information on Local Public
Administration Reform
Only in November 1998 did the Parliament ?nally manage to adopt the Law on Administrative-Territorial Organization and the Law on Local Public Administration, both aimed at considering and solving at least a part of the actual functional dif?culties of this domain. Firstly, it is necessary to make this reform suf?ciently intelligible and accepted by the citizens. We have to mention that the adoption of this law has been preceded by a massive campaign to discredit the reform. People were told that the disappearance of actual regions and the introduction of new counties were targeted against their interests, and that if there were a drastic reduction of public spending, the future county bureaucracy would ignore the people just as it had done before. Others have seen in the initiated reform signs of rejuvenation of a disliked administrative tradition from the interwar period, and their reaction was to reject it in favor of a "known evil" (i.e., structures of Soviet inspiration left almost untouched in some places).
The normalization of the system of local public administration needs practical solutions and models to follow. There is the example of the municipality of Chisinau which, through several con?icts and trials with the central government, has managed to win, during the past several years, important acting and decision-making freedoms. This is not the case, however, of small communities, especially rural ones, where economic and social development before 1991 was stagnating and subsequently "transformed" into a complex of chronic dif?culties: underdeveloped infrastructure, economic dependence of local producers on monopolistic enterprises, reduced capacity of tax collection, and lack of human and institutional resources suf?cient to solve the crisis, including the virtual nonexistence of local budgets. The reform could not evolve without a radical rede?nition of the status of local public administrators, employed for executive functions or designated for eligible functions by the electorate of local communities. Finally, the reform of the local public administration system in Moldova can register positive outcomes only if it can stimulate and integrate innovative experiences, and combine pioneering with responsibility for the interests of the community. People have begun to realize that only through the effort of local authorities, established with respect for the free initiative and interest of private property, can most of the problems of local interest be solved. An ef?cient local public administration has to know how to share decision-making power with the citizens it represents, whether trying to solve a series of problems of common interest or striving to increase ef?ciency by delegating responsibility to achieve the goals of public interest.
The involvement of local communities in decision-making at the local level is multidimensional and complex. This participation of the population contributes to an: (a) increase in the degree of transparency of administrative decisions; (b) improvement of the process of consultations with the population on the priorities assumed by elected local authorities; (c) consolidation of a better understanding of the most important problems of the community and even of a particular identity of citizens from a certain locality; (d) improvement of living conditions. It has to be mentioned that we can detect many levels of participation of the population (classi?ed according to function of intensity) in the decision-making process:
Transparency of decisions. Making sure people know the problems that have to be solved by the local government represents the ?rst stage of citizenship participation. Without the necessary information citizens cannot be involved in solving existing problems. Instead they become alienated from the decision-making process. Free access to the information and speci?c activities of the local administration, development programs and evaluation of the impact of administrative decisions represents a necessary condition for the functioning of a modern public administration. The involvement of the population in preliminary discussions of problems of public interest and consultations depends on speci?c conditions of the respective community and on the creativity of public of?cers.
Public announcements. Within the Local Development in Innovative Villages Program the mayoralties of pilot villages have built special stands designated to posting councils’ decisions or other announcements of a general character that public authorities wish (and must) make public to the people they represent. Additionally, the regular posting of the minutes of the local councils’ meetings has been achieved: it provides a way of con?rming the participation of citizens at these discussions as well as other questions that the mayoralty wants to promote or achieve in the future. Together with the pilot mayoralties, the Viitorul Foundation has also launched the publishing of a local bulletin (for each locality) containing materials which otherwise would be much more dif?cult for the citizens of these localities to access. These are: activity programs of mayoralties, assessments of the process of privatization of the assets of former collective farms, decisions of the mayor involving the spending of public money, and other of?cial and commercial announcements. Most articles have been written by intellectuals from the villages, employees of the mayoralty or simply local volunteers who strongly support the efforts of the Foundation to cultivate "the assumed responsibilities" at the level of the local public authorities. The direct effect of these actions is a visible maximization of the dialogue (statistically and qualitatively) among mayoralties and citizens, and an increase in the size of the audience solicited by citizens regarding problems referred to in materials published in the edited bulletins or posted announcements. The mayoralty of Chircaiesti, for instance, was able to use a local radio station to inform the population about matters of public interest, while the mayoralty of Costesti has attempted to involve a private TV station for this purpose.
Public meetings. The Program has tried to stimulate a more ef?cient dialogue among the authorities and the citizens via public meetings, periodically organized with the participation of the local council and employees of the mayoralty. Thus, at one of the ?rst public meetings in Chircaiesti, it was decided to offer the water pipe from the village to local entrepreneurs to ensure its proper functioning and to use local resources for establishing a ?rm with joint capital. Most of the population from the pilot villages has enthusiastically supported this initiative of mayors, expressing the opinion that public services from the locality have to be administered by local private ?rms in order to ensure dynamism and better management.
Surveys. Surveys and opinion polls represent an exact and professional instrument for assessing public opinion in matters related to public interest. Unfortunately, this democratic procedure of questioning the population is at a rudimentary stage in the local communities, and only the accumulation of new and complex problems will make the local authorities use such methods of consultation as an ef?cient form of determining the "public interest." By organizing and conducting three opinion polls, the Viitorul Foundation has identi?ed a list of economic and social problems, whose solution is in the best interest of the citizens of the respective communities. Subsequently, this data were re?ected over the developmental priorities of these localities.
Cooperation with the associative sector. With the initiative of the Viitorul Foundation there has been support of the emergence of small groups of volunteers who founded several local NGOs, trying to represent an interface between the local public authorities and the citizens in the villages of Chircaiesti, Costesti and Dominteni. One of the most important tasks is the identi?cation of citizens, not only potentially interested in the destiny of their comminutes, but also capable of ?nding solutions, in?uencing decisions, mobilizing people for solving problems of local interest and generally placing the population in a better position to make administrative decisions.
We have to mention, however, that presently in the Republic of Moldova there is a very low level of transparency in the framework of local government activities. Most of the information diffused by local authorities is perceived as a formal duty and does not represent a real assessment of the situation at the local level. The local radio networks (where they still exist) are used inef?ciently. The Of?cial Monitor of the Republic of Moldova, where the laws and governmental decisions are published, is distributed at high commercial prices, which considerably reduces the free access of the population to the information and normative acts that they contain. The Journal of the Academy of Public Administration is issued in an insigni?cant number of copies for the number of local public administrations in the country and cannot satisfy the informational needs of local communities. At the same time, due to the acute de?cit of means, the Government of the Republic of Moldova presently does not publish any kinds of materials of an informational or scienti?c character regarding the problems of organization and functioning of public administrations. It is unusual that the mayoralties do not possess even the laws that represent the legal grounds for their decisions and activities. Quite often we were able to note that many mayoralties in Moldova do not have at least a copy of the laws regarding local public administration, not to mention other normative acts, necessary for an ef?cient local public administration. This overall situation aggravates the local of?cials’ peculiar self-perception, in particular through the fears and uncertainties of the actions undertaken by these authorities.
The Viitorul Foundation has tried, within its modest possibilities, to cover the lack of information and knowledge intensely experienced by the public of?cers from the Republic of Moldova. The Foundation has managed to publish a series of materials, such as: a Guide for the Councilor, a Guide for the Farmer, a Guide for Local Entrepreneurs and, ?nally, a White Book of Local Development. The publications were not provided as purely didactic in content but as an attempt to involve the targeted groups of public of?cials in the general process of reforming the situation of the local government. In the villages where the Foundation has implemented its programs their activities have been reported in the local newspaper—Rural News—and the Program’s accomplishments have been presented on radio and TV shows. However, these efforts cannot substitute for national programs that a government should promote for solidi?cation of local governance and consolidation of the results obtained in the administrative decentralization.
In 1998, one of the NGOs based in Dominteni in the Drochia region (Ghiocel) has launched the initiative of building a public park in cooperation with the mayoralty. The NGO persuaded the local council of the necessity of the project by revealing the results of a survey executed among the population. The work soon started. The fact that a nongovernmental organization convinced the people from the village to contribute materials to the project in conjunction with obtaining ?nancing from a French organization—Fondation Europeene pour la Liberte d’Expression (FELE)—and the mayoralty (despite limited resources in the local budget) can serve as an example. At the same time, another NGO, "Terra," together with the mayoralty have agreed over the construction of a rural food marketplace. Terra has managed to obtain two grants from ?nancing organizations (Soros Foundation in Moldova and FELE).
In Costesti, the local NGO "Rusticum" has decided to start, together with the mayoralty, a project of planting trees near public institutions from the locality and cleaning the river that goes through the center of the locality. It has to be stressed that the local NGOs, obtaining ?nancial sources from outside the communities they represent, have convinced the local authorities to contribute ?nancially toward solving the speci?c social problems of these rural localities. Thus this voluntary nongovernmental initiative could attract and motivate constructive reactions of the citizens, as well as assistance from the mayoralty, in spite of the huge ?nancial dif?culties that it might encounter.
Notes
1. Survey conducted in April 1998 by the Viitorul Foundation.
2. The origins of concepts regarding the local economic development are in the United States and can be applied to any local public authority that functions under a market economy. See: D. Ianone. 1997. Introduction to Economic Development: A Training Course for Economic Development Professionals. Washington, DC: National Council for Urban Economic Development.
3. According to Zbiegniew Brzezinski, "the ideas in particular mobilize the political action and shape our world.? They can be a vehicle for building the consensus or a source of spreading the con?icts." What does the research on political attitudes and behavior tell us about the need for improving the education on democracy? The Education of Citizens in a Market Economy and Its Relationship to a Free Society by Margaret Stimmann Branson, A Paper delivered to the International Conference on Western Democracy and Eastern Europe: Political, Economic and Social Changes, October 14–18, 1991.
4. The contribution of the European Foundation for Freedom of Speech, grants from the Soros Foundation in Moldova and the kind contribution of LGI/OSI.
5. Survey of mayors, councilors and public of?cers on local public authorities’ activities. June 1998.
6. Idem
7. Idem
8. Beginning in May 1998, ?ve NGOs from the pilot localities have joined the Local Citizenship Development Program, ?nanced by the European Union under the mentorship of the European European Foundation for the Freedom of Expression
9. In accordance with the estimation of the Ministry of the Economy and Reforms, hidden unemployment represents approximately 250,000–300,000 people, or almost 11.5% of the employable population.
10. Article 1 of the Constitution stipulates that the "Republic of Moldova is a legal, democratic state, in which the dignity of man, his rights and freedoms, the free development of the human personality, the truth and political pluralism represent the supreme values and are guaranteed."
11. Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, Article 109.