Mayor of Causeni Anatol Dontu is confident that the support provided by the Norwegian Mapping Agency, in collaboration with the Land Registry and Cadastre Agency and the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CALM), will create new opportunities to develop the locality he administers. “The computer with the necessary parameters for work with spatial data sets and the multifunctional printer will allow us to improve the process of managing all land and other assets within the community and solve some of the problems that exist in any municipality. For example, there are a lot of arable lands that are illegally possessed and used for other purposes, we have forests that are felled, there are a lot of incorrect cadastral plans that lead up to disputes between the neighbors. There are cases when even economic agents providing services in the district of Causeni argue over land, over the place of development, we have green spaces under the management of the city hall but illegally possessed, etc. I believe that the high-performance equipment generously provided by Norway will be useful to us to bring order in this area, “said the local elected representative.
According to Anatol Dontu, there was no possibility to train cadastre officials before implementation of the new project. “I strongly recommend to the architect and specialist responsible for attracting investment to attend these courses together with specialist in land ownership regulation. This kind of training needs to be organised on a more frequent basis. It would be welcome to set up a Centre within CALM and so we can call when we need assistance, expertise and training in order to increase professional skills in the field of handling spatial data sets.”
The mayor of Causeni considers that in order to be competitive, a cadastral specialist needs permanent training and the QGIS program must become available so that it can be used to its full capacity. “We hope that all the necessary steps for training will be completed and the technique will be used to solve problems in the territory. By getting this opportunity and because there are too many problems in this area, we plan to set up new positions or even a separate Service with qualified specialists in the field of spatial data and planning, so that they can use the existing spatial datasets in the public entities at the central level in the administrative process through real-time network services.”
Returning to the problems in the cadastral field, the mayor specified that now they do not know exactly the position and volumetric characteristics of the green spaces and, in general, of the forest vegetation on the administered territory and what portions have been illegally possessed. “We need assistance in this area in order to detect the lawlessness and remove the shortcomings in our city. Even if we have a general urban plan for the town of Causeni, this specialized equipment is very necessary in order to delineate correctly all the spaces and thus bring as many benefits as possible to the town.”
Anatol Dontu also spoke about the current salary system which is uncompetitive and thus it becomes very difficult to keep qualified specialists in the municipalities in Moldova. “Currently we do not have the possibility to increase or offer a decent salary to a good specialist. We have a good cadastral specialist, but in two-three years she will reach retirement age and we will lose him. With a salary of 5-6 thousands lei it is very difficult to involve highly qualified young specialists in the field.”
Anatol Dontu believes that the use of inter-community cooperation and delegation tools, using the mechanism of shared remuneration, would be a solution to motivate specialists ready to work in LPAs. “Through a draft law it is necessary to stipulate all these provisions, at least for the main specialists in the municipalities. We want to develop this area and we will be fully involved in this project and if necessary we will come up with proposals, including to CALM, in order to support us further.”
Also, the mayor of Causeni believes that in order to strengthen the capacities of local authorities, the new government must ensure that the raion councils – useless intermediaries between the city hall and the central government – disappear. “We want the hostile attitude of governments towards mayors who do not represent their political colour to disappear. At the same time, it is essential that funding goes directly to the municipalities, not through intermediaries, including external assistance. Establishing a percentage of gross domestic product for the municipalities would be a way of depoliticising the funds, with the money being distributed to the ATUs according to clearly established criteria and reduced to a simple mathematical calculation. Any mayor would manage the financial resources of the municipality according to the needs of the locality and thus increase the possibility of development. “
The mayor says that now local authorities are trying with small budgets to cover all the problems in the localities, which is extremely difficult or even impossible. “We have to maintain and develop the physical infrastructure, which is in a disastrous condition currently. We have reached this degradation because this competence has been transferred to the LPAs without the financial and administrative instruments established by law. Continuation of use of these half-measures will create a real demographic collapse.”
CALM Communication Service
