“Inquire how Public Money is Spent” campaign goes on and expands

The media campaign “Inquire how Public Money is Spent” conducted by the Independent Press Association of Moldova (API) became nationwide at the second stage. In 2009, it will focus on the public procurement process in eight towns, including the municipality of Chisinau. The second stage of the campaign was launched during a news conference held at Info-Prim Neo on January 29. The campaign was initiated in 2009 and carried out by the API in partnership with four independent newspapers and nongovernmental organizations working in Ungheni, Soroca, Rezina and Cimislia. At the first stage, the campaign aimed to involve the mass media and the people in ensuring the transparency of budgetary operations at local level. API executive director Petru Macovei said that the municipalities of Balti and Chisinau and the towns of Cahul and Orhei will be monitored at the second stage, alongside the other four towns. The monitoring will be carried out by eight local newspapers - “Unghiul” in Ungheni, “Observatorul de Nord” in Soroca, “Cuvantul din Rezina” in Rezina, “Business Info” in Cimislia, “Ziarul de Garda” in Chisinau, “SP” in Balti and “Cahul Expres” in Cahul. “The newspapers will focus on the transparency of the public procurement process, selection of economic operators, the quality of the goods supplied and works carried our,” Petru Macovei said, adding that recommendations will be formulated at the end for the local and central public authorities. Tudor Yashchenko, director of “Cuvantul” newspaper in Rezina, said that during the first stage of the campaign, in which the paper took part, they managed to change the mentality of the local authorities, but the people are not yet very interested in how the public money is spent. “This project helped us establish cooperation relations with the mayor's office of Rezina. We informed the people how the budget of a settlement is formed and how the public money is used. We identified many subjects for journalistic investigations,” he said. Speaking about the first stage of the campaign, project assistant Galina Colun, the head of the finances division of Orhei district, said most of the problems discovered over time concern the inefficient distribution of the budget resources in districts and the absence of expenditure estimates for certain products or services. “Ziarul de Garda” will monitor the public procurement in education. The paper's director Alina Radu said the readers, students and parents must know when the state invests money in the repair of schools, purchase of books, etc. “We have great expectations as we hope the journalists' access to information will improve,” she said. She also said that the Public Procurement Agency's website should include an efficient electronic system for publishing the necessary information. The campaign “Inquire how Public Money is Spent” is supported financially by Soros-Moldova Foundation. Its budget is about US$45,000.