Moldova to receive over nine million euros for implementing Association Agreement

Chisinau, 25 September /MOLDPRES/ - The state institutions will no longer be guarded by private companies. The cabinet today approved the establishment of an interdiction, so that private companies cannot provide services of guarding objects of strategic importance, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.   

Thus, private guard will be banned at the ministries and organizational structures within their sphere of competence; central administrative authorities subordinated to the government and the organizational structures, including the public institutions financed from the state budget; autonomous public authorities; objects for the preservation and stocking of weapons, ammunitions, explosive materials and radioactive substances; objects for the preservation and stocking of drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors (excepting the private medical institutions and drugs stores); law courts and Prosecutor General’s Office; state enterprises and/or commercial societies with state capital and the commercial companies where the state holds majority stake in the registered share capital.   

„This is a draft law which will help us disassemble another one corruption scheme made by the oligarchic regime. A lot of state institutions were “guarded” by the firms of Plahotniuc and his people. These contracts were assigned quite dubiously and we saw the way these institutions were guarded from our own experience,” Prime Minister Maia Sandu said.     

Another important draft approved by the cabinet today is the law on de-offshorization.

The draft brings transparency to the process of management of public property, privatization, as well as the economic process existing between the state and economic agents. The initiative will lead to the liquidation of more current schemes and will not allow anybody benefiting from obscure mechanisms which would lead to the embezzlement of state’s wealth.    

„The previous regime tried to turn Moldova into an offshore; it involved us as state and citizens in a lot of transactions and contracts with offshore firms, which led to huge damages for the state. Now, we actually wander which are these offshores which stole money from Banca de Economii (Savings Bank) or which took over the Airport. All those willing to make transactions with the state, all those willing to win contracts on the sale of services or sale of goods should be kind and post all information, so that we know who are they, who is the end beneficiary of these companies and put an end to all schemes which have taken place in all these years,” the PM noted.       

The cabinet today approved a draft law on the ratification of the agreement on financing between the Moldovan government and the European Commission, Support to Implement Moldova-EU Association Agreement. Moldova will receive nine million euros on behalf of the European Commission to implement the Association Agreement. The money will be used for Moldova’s participation in EU programmes, for the promotion of gender quality and women’s empowerment through the consolidated implementation of the gender perspective in the local public policies, as well as to fight the domestic violence which hits women and children. The overall cost of the financing agreement is 10.7 million euros, of which the European Commission’s contribution is about 9.3 million euros, co-financing on behalf of the UN Women is of 250,000 euros and co-financing on behalf of potential beneficiaries of the grant is estimated at 1.2 million euros. The financing agreement between the Moldovan government and the European Commission was signed during a visit to Brussels by PM Maia Sandu on 24 July 2019.    

The cabinet today approved the earmarking of about 2.5 million lei to the Interior Ministry’s General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations. The money, provided from the government’s intervention fund, is meant for covering the spending for the procurement of services of demolition, earthwork and expertise of the apartment blocks damaged in the Otaci town, northern Ocnita district. At the same time, the financial means will cover also the expenses for the carriage of waste coming from the demolition works.    

The cabinet of ministers approved the amendment of the programme on the distribution of road fund means for the national public roads for 2019 and the programme on periodical repair of the national, local, communal roads and streets for 2019. Initially, more than 1.24 billion lei was allocated for the repair of public roads with a total length of 5,857 km and engineering constructions.  

The draft contains two amendments: the distribution of means within the Road Fund, without decreasing or increasing allocations after finding out the early degradation of roads’ state. Thus, till late 2019, over 322.2 million lei is scheduled to be used for the works of repair and maintenance of public roads, up by over 114 million lei. The second stipulation deals with the programme on periodical repair of the national public roads, local communal roads and streets in 2019. This programme was initially announced with a budget of 1.7 billion lei, in fact, being budgeted with only 950 million lei. For the fairer re-allocation of money within this programme between various settlements, decision-makers ruled to redistribute the financial means, given that some villages were more advantaged than the others.    

„We must agree on a mechanism which is to take into account the number of residents, the state of roads in settlements and not the political colour. We will earmark the money and the mayor and community should decide together which   streets they want to repair. We must investigate and know which are the companies making qualitative repair and which are not; otherwise, this a waste of public money,” Prime Minister Maia Sandu added.