DOC Methodology for voluntary amalgamation of administrative-territorial units published in Official Journal of Moldova

Chisinau, Dec. 8 /MOLDPRES/- Methodology for voluntary amalgamation of administrative-territorial units was published in the Official Journal today.

The document sees the entire merger process, the criteria and conditions for its implementation. Under the methodology, the voluntary amalgamation of administrative-territorial units is initiated by decisions of the first level local councils, adopted by the vote of majority of elected local councilors, at the proposal of the mayor, 1/3 of the number of elected local councilors or 10% of the number of citizens with right to vote who resides in the territorial administrative unit.

The authorities will support the amalgamated localities by granting financial sources to stimulate budgets. Also, the localities will benefit from financial support for the development of the infrastructure and the preparation of the voluntary amalgamation process. 250 million lei were planned for 2023 in the state budget law.

The methodology will serve as support in the development of efficient local public administration and the exclusion of excessive fragmentation of localities. According to statistics, the local public administration is extremely fragmented, almost 90% of the administrative-territorial units of the first level having a small population, below 5000 inhabitants.

The authorities said that the voluntary territorial amalgamation will increase the institutional and financial capacity of the local public administration, and as a result, the authorities will provide citizens with better quality and more accessible services.

Source: monitorul.gov.md