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Official Trips Financed Like Natural Disasters

After only half a year, the government’s Reserve Fund has been fully emptied. Although the purpose of this money is designed for exceptional situations, like this year’s floods, the government spent most it on the head of state’s visits to other countries and other actions that were supposed to be financed from the state budget. Therefore, instead of covering costs for exceptional situations, the RF has instead covered the government’s expenses.

The RF is a monetary fund meant to finance expenses and actions that appear during the year, but they are not included in the state budget. According to the law on regulation concerning the usage of the Reserve Fund’s means, these actions might be removing the effects of natural disasters and accidents; conducting anticipated elections and referendums and offering financial support to other states. The government is the institution responsible for the RF management, which decides upon the usage of money through government decisions. The press service of the Ministry of Finance has informed us that in 2008, the allocated sum in the RF covered the amount of 46 million lei. 33.3 million lei was spent in the first semester; simple calculations shows that 12.7 million is left for the second semester.

Natural disasters vs. official visits

Valeriu Prohnitchi, economic analyst at the Expert Group Independent Analytic Center, stated that reckless spending of public money from the RF took place. The government doesn’t have a clear policy on managing the RF, thus, obviously, the money allocation has been badly planned. The sum left in the RF is very small for covering the flood damages.

Veaceslav Ionita, economic analyst for IDIS Viitorul, said that, at the moment, there is nothing left in the RF. According to the information on the allocation and usage of RF means, in the first semester of 2008 most of the expenses were for President Voronin’s foreign visits. Money has also been allocated for capital repairs of certain buildings for cultural events. “The financing of these actions that have nothing in common with exceptional situations should have been planned in the state budget. This should be done in order to avoid situations when natural disasters take place, like the present floods, and we don’t know how to handle them because there is no money left in the RF,” Ionita mentioned. “If the RF money is not correctly allocated, the government should take the blame for this. In a case like this, parliament should pose the question to the government, in which it would inquire the way the fund’s money was used and might also ask for the government’s resignation,” Ionita specified.

According to the Minister of Finance, Mariana Durlesteanu, the distribution and allocation of the RF takes place strictly according to their destination provided in the decisions taken by the government for this matter.

The Reserve Fund – a source of relaxation and political defalcation

Leonid Bujor, the Moldova Noastra (AMN) leader, said that spending the RF in half a year is not normal. “We, together with colleagues from other parties, have drawn attention many times to the fact that the RF money was spent incorrectly. Even if the government claims that this money was properly used, it is far from the truth.” According to the AMN leader, in a situation like this the parties should call upon an extraordinary parliament meeting, during which a modification of the 2008 budget and the allocation of supplementary means in the budget would be proposed, because helping families affected by floods requires a great amount of money.

Igor Klipii, a Democrat Party politician, mentioned that the RF has always been a source of political defalcation. “The government did with this money everything it wanted. The communists relaxed a bit and spent the money as they wished, they didn’t foresee this calamity would happen. However, under these conditions, parliament should call an extraordinary meeting, during which they should discuss the present situation, as well as the necessary budget for covering help. Unfortunately, this is not foreseen yet. The government might turn the activities for helping the victims of the disaster into an electoral propaganda campaign, although I am afraid it will not face the expenses, because the needs are too high.”

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