Mayors, district heads and local councilors from all over the country announced that they will stage a march in front of the Government Building and the Palace of the Republic on October 11. They will demonstrate in support of the new local public financing system and against the intentions to delay the adoption and implementation of the Law on Local Public Finances and against the blocking of the whole decentralization process, IPN reports.

The head of the Congress of Local Public Authorities (CALM) Tatiana Badan, who is the mayor of Selemet village of Cimislia district, told a news conference that the decision to stage public events was taken in an extraordinary meeting of the Congress’s Administration Board. “We want to improve and strengthen the local self-government in Moldova. By this law we aim to ensure greater autonomy at the local level so that the local authorities are not politically dependent,” she stated.

CALM executive director Viorel Furdui said the fact that the lawmakers delay adopting the law in the final reading means that they neglect and sabotage the own commitments, which is against the expectations of the international organizations that consider decentralization as one of the main reforms.

The bill with amenmdnets to the Law on Local Public Finances was passed in two readings and is to be adopted in the final reading in the autumn session of Parliament so that it starts to be used from January 1, 2014. Under the law, there will be direct budgetary relations between the central authorities and the mayor’s offices and the amounts transferred to the latter will depend on the number of inhabitants of the settlements.