CHIŞINĂU (Imedia) - The Viitorul Institute for Development and Social Initiatives presented a report today entitled The Legal Status and Financing of Local Roads in Moldova. Some of the main findings show that 90 percent of local roads in the country are in poor condition and continue to worsen. Local authorities, which manage these roads, have no money to fix them. The problem, the report notes, is exacerbated by the fact that „central authorities collect funds for road rehabilitation, which they then distribute in an arbitrary and discriminatory fashion."  

According to the country's Strategy for the Infrastructure of Road Transport (2008-2017), only two percent of Moldovan roads are in good or satisfactory condition.

Viitorul stresses that „Moldovan roads are in a deplorable condition and that the national road network needs, based on various circumstances, urgent short-term repairs or rehabilitation." The think tank avers that the country is in this situation because of „chronic financial anemia" that has constantly affected the road financing system since the Soviet Union fell apart.

The report emphasizes that the Government's various strategies to develop road infrastructure „will have the expected impact only when authorities take into consideration the reformation of the mechanism to finance local roads by decentralizing resources."

Commentary:

Ion Beschieru: The mechanism to finance public roads should be reformed

„Both the local public finance system, and the entire mechanism to finance public roads should be reformed by transferring the necessary resources to local budgets, which could then be used to maintain and repair local roads," says Ion Beschieru, who co-authored the study.

Mr. Beschieru adds that „an alternative solution could be the inclusion in the fiscal code of additional local taxes and the establishment of a special local tax for transportation."

In addition, the expert stresses that „it is necessary to set up a flat or a minimal rate for the road fund that would be used to manage local public roads."

„Central authorities have been generous with sharing responsibilities, but have been less generous when it comes to covering these responsibilities financially," Mr. Beschieru explains.

The expert notes that „although repairing and maintaining local roads falls under the purview of local public administration, the law on roads, contrary to constitutional provisions, does not ever recognize the existence of the right to property that territorial administrative units have on local roads, mentioning instead that public roads can only be state or private property."

Mr. Beschieru concludes that, given the circumstances, the Government should cover local road maintenance by transferring money to local administration units.

Eugeniu Datco: Local governments with political or personal ties to Chisinau get more money

Eugeniu Datco, general director of the Union of Transporters and Road Staff in Moldova, says that his organization proposed that the road fund be filled with excise payments and for „the sum accrued from road taxes to be distributed proportionally to petrol consumption."

Mr. Datco emphasizes that the distribution of funds for the repair or rehabilitation of local and national roads is „inequitable because local governments with political or personal ties to Chisinau get more money."

He stresses that projects are also a problem because local authorities can receive money without having a project. Mr. Datco suggests for authorities to elaborate a state program „for at least five-ten years" that would seek to rehabilitate and build local roads.

„The quality of roads is about the economy," Mr. Datco concludes. He explains that transporters have lost 2.5 billion lei because of poor roads.

File:

The length of local Moldovan roads reaches 6,137 km, of which only 2,777 km are local roads with modern layering. Of these 2,777 km, 2,253 km are past their use, about 90 percent of which are in a bad shape. Another 2,781 km of local roads are covered by gravel. Another 579 km are village roads. Over 40 villages in the countries do not have paved roads and during poor weather conditions become completely isolated from the rest of the world, which has negative economic and social consequences.

At more than half the length of national roads, the local road network is underfunded. The money that does flow to raions is distributed in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner. Maintenance, repairs, and the construction of local roads and streets are under the purview of local authorities, but they do  not have enough funds to cover costs. Local authorities in Moldova depend entirely on resources collected and administered at the central level.

According to some estimates and numbers used by the Transportation and Road Infrastructure Minstry, authorities need four billion lei (about four million dollars) for the next ten years to fix Moldovan roads.

Total expenses of actions stipulated in the Strategy for the Infrastructure of Road Transport (2008-2017) are estimated at 40 billion lei (about three billion dollars).