Local Authorities of Moldova Reiterate Their Support for Financial and Tax Independence

The Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CLAM) stands for financial and tax decentralization, which is a prerequisite for the development of local communities. This was discussed yesterday at a meeting of a group of mayors with Speaker of the Parliament Igor Grosu, Minister of Finance Dumitru Budianschi and a group of MPs, infotag.md reports. According to a message on the organization's website, the main topics of discussion were the provisions of the state program and budgetary and fiscal policy for 2022. CLAM representatives emphasized the need to increase the financial capabilities of local authorities and spoke in favor of depoliticizing all state funds. Local elected officials spoke about the need to create an institutional mechanism for CLAM interaction with parliament and government, so that all initiatives aimed at local self-government are widely discussed and, as a consequence, that the adopted laws improve the activities of local authorities. According to the mayors, the decentralization of the wage system and the ability to determine the necessary staff, depending on the size of the mayor's office and the specifics of the area, will create opportunities for attracting qualified specialists and stop the loss of officials from mayoralties. Following the meeting, an agreement was reached to set up a dialogue mechanism involving representatives of local authorities at meetings of the standing parliamentary commissions.