Expert-Grup

In Its Current Form, the Road Fund Is Not Necessary for Financing and Maintaining Roads

Friday, 31 July 20153288 views
In Its Current Form, the Road Fund Is Not Necessary for Financing and Maintaining Roads

Automatically translated summary. The full article is available in Romanian.

A study by the Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup” in Chișinău finds that Moldova's Road Fund, which grew from MDL 1.033 billion in 2012 to MDL 1.366 billion in 2014, suffers from poor planning, arbitrary allocation and a lack of transparency, and concludes that it is unnecessary in its current form.

In 2013 the Road Fund reached almost 5.5% of the State Budget and over 1.2% of GDP, compared with up to 1% of GDP in other countries. The study identifies flawed revenue planning, with at least MDL 4 million uncollected annually, politically driven allocation, sparse reporting and doubtful quality of works.

Many contracts were increased by up to 29%, deadlines extended by 5 to 17 months, and warranties cut from 3 years to 6 months, or from 5-6 years to 1 year. Funds were also misused, for example MDL 22 million for streets in Nemțeni and MDL 3.3 million for a noise barrier on the Hîncești road. The study concludes that road financing and maintenance can be handled through programme-based budgeting. It was funded by the Soros Foundation Moldova.

View the original article in Romanian