Again about tariffs and citizens’ involvement in decision-making in Chisinau municipality. Analysis by Veaceslav Gututui for Info-Prim Neo

The decisions No. 8/8 and 8/15 to raise the bus and trolleybus fares and water and sewerage charges made by the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) on September 15 aroused the dissatisfaction of the socially vulnerable groups of people, who staged protests. The given reaction, alongside others, showed there are no stable forms of cooperation and dialogue between the local public authorities and the population. At the same time, the regulations concerning the ensurance of transparency and the citizens’ engagement in decision-making in the municipality of Chisinau adopted by the CMC (decision No. 1/4 of January 22, 2008) say that [the municipal authorities are obliged to consult the citizens and/or the organizations that represent them before taking decisions.] The law on transparency in decision making No. 239-XVI of November 13, 2008 lays down similar requirements as regards the informing of the citizens before adopting normative documents. The residents of Chisinau municipality often use the protests as form of citizen involvement in local decision-making when they want to achieve important results. Other forms of dialog have been used more sporadically and rather seldom (for example the public hearings on the General Urbanistic Plan and the Zonal Urbanistic Plan “Northern Bus Station”, meetings with young people, the roundtable meeting on decisional transparency). Consequently, some of the municipal decisions are made under the pressure of different groups of interest (for instance the intervention of the Transnistrian refugees and war veterans in the CMC meeting of the autumn of 2007 or the recent protests by pensioners). The fact that the decisions are taken quickly without consulting the people and/or the organizations that promote their interests diminishes the population’s trust in the quality of the governance and in the local authorities’ responsibility for solving the problems faced by the municipality. Steps are now being taken to inform the citizens. The City Hall’s official website www.chisinau.md became livelier and contains more information. A system is launched to transmit the meetings of the City Hall and the Municipal Council online and offline. Most of the district heads’ offices have websites. But these efforts are insufficient for ensuring the efficient participation of the public in the local decision-making. In the future, in order to avoid such turbulence and social tension, stable forms of citizen involvement in governance should be institutionalized at the City Hall, the general divisions of the CMC and district heads’ offices (advertisements on billboards and websites, opinion polls, open-air meetings in quarters, roundtable meetings, analysis and monitoring reports on the implementation of the local policies, public debates and hearings, and consultative councils on areas of public interest and/or quarter interest, etc). The place where the CMC holds its meetings should be changed as the assembly hall is too small to facilitate the people’s and nongovernmental organizations’ access. The tariffs on the public utilities in the municipality of Chisinau had to be increased long ago as they do not correspond to the economic reality. But how it is done is very important (the transport fares were raised suddenly by 50%-100%, while the water charges by 100%), as the period when they are adopted (when the country faces an economic crisis). The way in which the tariffs were increased is not the most appropriate one and the dissatisfaction of the veterans and pensioners proves this. This fact was broadly reported on by the mass media loyal to the Communists Party. In fact, it is the Communist councilors in the CMC who are to blame for the created situation as they did not assume the political risk and responsibility for adopting such unpopular short-term decisions during the last few years. But such decisions are absolutely necessary for the normal functioning of the local public services in the long run. So far, the major faction of the PCRM and/or the major coalition in the CMC have tackled the given problem by raising loans from banks for covering the difference between the real charges and those paid by the population. The loans and the interest were repaid from the municipal budget, that is from the taxes levied from the Chisinau residents. So, in fact it is the population who pays for these tariffs indirectly. A regular review of the tariffs (at least once in half a year) will show that the authorities keep up with the realities and take into account the financial possibilities of the ordinary citizens, who are the most disciplined payers of bills. In addition, amendments should be introduced to the laws on public utilities and on the local public administration so as to create an independent public authority that would regulate the area of public services provided by the local authorities. The existence of such an authority that will not be influenced by the political developments and will use a clear methodology of calculating the tariffs on public utilities, in a transparent way and by consulting/informing the people, will help better inform the population about the method of calculating tariffs. This, in turn, will help avoid adopting politicized economic decisions and will make the work of the municipal authorities more efficient. European integration and democracy means not only adoption of different national strategies and programs in the given area, but also modification of the management methods, including in the local public administration. As to the economic crisis, the international practice, including of the cities of the region, shows that when transparency and local democracy is improved, the investors express greater interest in the given city. [For Info-Prim Neo - Veaceslav Gututui, INRECO Conflict Resolution Institute]