Mayor Accused of Misusing Funds in Chisinau
The Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) faction in the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) will organise public discussions with the capital's residents starting next week to develop an alternative budget for the municipality.
The PAS faction in the CMC accuses Mayor Ion Ceban of indifference and delaying solutions to the problems of the capital. For their part, City Hall representatives claim that the institution continues to work for the citizens.
According to the vice-president of the PAS faction in the CMC, Dumitru Ivanov, in the absence of a Council-approved budget, investments in the city's development cannot be made, and this action has been intentionally delayed by the Mayor of the Capital for three months or more. The member of the faction also says that public money would be used in the personal interests of Mayor Ion Ceban.
According to Dumitru Ivanov, the faction is ready to propose an alternative budget, which will be consulted with the residents of the capital, starting next week. Citizens, interest groups, and other factions in the CMC are invited to the consultations. The aim is to eventually develop a balanced budget for the municipality.
“We will discuss areas such as business, education, transport, and historical heritage. We will also invite the factions to dialogue to unblock the situation in which the municipality of Chisinau has found itself for the first time, so that we have a budget in which we propose to repair courtyards, roads, schools, and kindergartens. We want a budget that will be used in the public interest, not in the interests of a group within the City Hall or of party interests. At the end of the public consultations, we will present the budget proposals for 2024 and we will insist that they be approved as a matter of urgency and that investments in priority projects for the city begin,” Ivanov said.
Natalia Ixari, the communication advisor to Mayor General Ion Ceban, mentioned in a Facebook post referring to the press conference held by the PAS faction that the Chisinau City Hall continues to work, and that those who organised the conference wanted to fulfil their quota of appearances in the press and to mention Ion Ceban in every sentence.
The municipal budget for 2024 has not yet been approved. In February, Deputy Mayor of the Capital Olga Ursu announced that it would be developed “in the shortest possible time”. Subsequently, the Chisinau City Hall switched to a provisional budget which, according to it, “did not have to” be subject to public consultations.
In the same month, the PAS faction in the CMC filed a complaint with the General Prosecutor's Office, requesting the law enforcement bodies to investigate how the provisional municipal budget was developed and how public money is being used.
Previously, the municipality expressed its dissatisfaction with the small amounts of money transferred by the Government, which would be insufficient to cover the needs of the capital. In turn, the Ministry of Finance clarified that the resources allocated to the Chisinau City Hall for 2024 from the state budget have been increased by approximately 40 million lei.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
