Mayor of Negureni: Administrative Reform is Voluntary yet Compulsory; Pressure Is Being Put on Decision-Making

Ion Popa, mayor of Negureni, commented on the merging localities. “Voluntary yet compulsory, as they say in Bucharest. I cannot say that this is a voluntary reform, because recently we have witnessed several interferences. I have known enough cases of tough interference in decisions taken by certain local public administration bodies,” as reported by Unimedia.info. “There has been interference from district chairs, officials of the State Chancellery and MPs. There are situations where they all act in concert,” Popa stated. At the same time, Ion Popa noted that residents of villages which, following the administrative reform, will be left without a town hall, will not be forced to travel to the administrative centre for all public services. According to Popa, under the law, every settlement will have an official to represent the mayor and to liaise between the local administration and residents. “Residents of settlements without town halls will not find themselves in a situation where they have to travel to the administrative centre. And I will explain why. An e-government platform will be introduced – and in some places is already being introduced – which, starting with the next local elections in autumn 2027, will establish a new administrative structure with a single mayor and a single local council. “But we have to understand that in all these localities without mayoralties, unified service centers will be introduced starting this year, I believe from this autumn. In some places, they are already at the implementation stage. In Negureni, such a center has been operating for more than three years – it is essentially a kind of small branch of the Public Services Agency,” Ion Popa said. In addition, under the law, each locality will have an official – a representative of the mayor – who will perform certain duties. The Government of the Republic of Moldova has proposed a large-scale reform of local public administration involving the integration of mayoralties and the rearrangement of districts. According to President Maia Sandu, the reform is “one of the most difficult transformations in our country.”