Expert-Grup

Lack of political will and civil servants' competence among major causes of budget gaps in local public authorities

Wednesday, 3 June 20156746 views
Lack of political will and civil servants' competence among major causes of budget gaps in local public authorities

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

A new infographic published by Budgetstories.md shows that in 2014 the irregularities in public money management identified by the Court of Accounts totalled MDL 8 billion, with one third of the losses occurring in local public authorities. It attributes them largely to a lack of political will and to civil servants' incompetence.

More than half of the Court of Accounts' recommendations in 2014 were not implemented by the authorities, the same situation as in 2013. A survey by Expert-Grup among local public authority officials found that the main causes of public money losses are the lack of political will and the lack of internal control mechanisms.

A further 40% of irregularities stem from a shortage of staff and professional capacity, while the salaries of mayors and town hall employees are very modest. This creates a vicious circle in which local authorities cannot attract qualified personnel. The survey also examined corruption, hidden interests, imperfect legislation, insufficient planning and inadequate management. The infographic was produced with the support of the Soros-Moldova Foundation.

View the original article in Romanian