Chisinau councilors unable to reach consensus on their pays

The Chisinau councilors haven’t yet received the remunerations for attending City Council (CMC) meetings. In February the councilors adopted a decision fixing the remuneration at 400 lei per meeting day. Later, CMC president Mihai Ghimpu annulled the decision, citing breaches of voting procedures. A new attempt to establish the pay rate has failed on Friday, March 28, after the councilors didn’t manage to reach a consensus on the issue, Info-Prim Neo reports. At the recent CMC meeting, the head of the municipal economic division Eugenia Ciumac proposed that each councilor receive 180 lei, specifying that this sum should be given not per meeting, which could last for several days, but per meeting day. Christian-Humanist councilor Oleg Oniscenko was again quick to react negatively. He argued that the sum of 180 lei paid for the amount of work done by the councilors was ridiculous, compared to 8,000 lei paid to the parliamentarians. Oniscenko said the CMC must consider a sum of around 400 lei per meeting day. “An honest but poor politician is nothing but a myth”, concluded Oniscenko. At the same time, councilor Pavel Caba of the Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN) faction believes a remuneration that is worth 180 lei is already too much, since the councilors accepted to perform such services voluntarily, in the interest of the city. The proposal of the AMN councilor was to set a pay of 180 lei per meeting, regardless of the number of days required to go through the order of business. Under a Government ordinance, the work or the local councilors shall be remunerated with at least two minimum salaries per meeting day. If the Chisinau councilors’ pays are set at 400 lei, the CMC meetings will cost the city budget some 940,000 lei for the period September 2007-December 2008.