On August 22 and 26, 2025, presentations took place on the level of transparency of districts, municipalities and communes for 2024 and the presentation of the top of the most transparent among them.

During the presentations, Liubomir Chiriac, project manager, executive director of IDIS "Viitorul, gave a welcoming speech. The presentations brought together about 80 representatives of local public administrations, both city halls and district councils.

According to the study conducted by IDIS "Viitorul", it was determined which are the top 5 most transparent districts and the top 5 most transparent localities for 2024. Thus, the districts: Strășeni, Soroca, Șoldănești, Cantemir and Cimișlia are considered the top five most transparent regions in the country. In this context, the top five most transparent localities are: Balti, Straseni, Cimişlia, Chisinau, and Cahul.

The monitoring report prepared by IDIS “Viitorul” covers the activity of local public administration in 80 administrative-territorial units of the Republic of Moldova (31 districts, 39 cities and 20 largest villages/communes). The localities were evaluated and ranked according to nine areas (transparency criteria) and 53 indicators: access to information, participation in the decision-making process, public procurement, public property management, budgeting, human resources, professional ethics and conflict of interest, social services, investments, municipal enterprises and participation in commercial companies.

The maximum score for the administration of a locality, including all areas, was 100 points. According to the report, the most transparent localities are the municipality of Balti (87 points), the city of Straseni (72 points), the city of Cimişlia (70 points), the municipality of Chisinau (69 points), the city of Cahul (67 points). Regarding the districts, the most transparent ones turned out to be Straseni district (78 points), Soroca district (77 points), Soldanesti district (75 points), Cantemir district (74 points) and Cimişlia district (74 points).

In this context, Silviu Plopa and Gherman Nicoleta, associated experts of IDIS "Viitorul" made a presentation of the comparative analysis of the level of transparency at the level of municipalities and districts for the year 2024, thus pointing out which criteria these have evolved on and what still needs to be worked on to improve the level of transparency. According to the analysis, 6.45% of the district web pages (APL II) and 15.25% of those of local public authorities (APL I) do not have sections dedicated to decision-making transparency. Regarding the agenda of public meetings, announcements regarding the date, time, place and agenda are published by 80.65% of the districts (25 districts). However, 9.68% (3 districts) do not include all these details. In the case of local public authorities, 45.67% do not publish this information, and 5.08% (3 localities) provide it only partially.

The best examples of compliance with access to information are the local public authorities in Bălți, Chișinău and Cimișlia with 97%, as well as the Basarabeasca (96%), Strașeni, Telenești, Florești districts (93.8%)

In terms of participation in the decision-making process, 19.35% of district administrations (APL II) and 33.9% of mayors (APL I) did not make public in 2024 the announcements of organizing public consultations, and 14 district administrations and 52 APLs did not place the transparency report on the web

Regarding the budget, 80.65% of districts and 52.54% of municipalities published the budget for 2024 on the web, and 22 districts and 14 localities published the reports on the execution of the 2024 budget on the web.

The report "Transparency in local governance: between progress and involution” also shows that 12 districts and 17 first-level local governments have brought to the public's attention through their websites the adopted social assistance programs, information about the social services provided.

Among the districts that stood out in this criterion are Telenești and Nisporeni with 75% transparency, and among the municipalities and communes, the municipalities of Bălți, Cimișlia, Pelinia, Talmaza, Ceadîr-Lunga and Varnița with 100% each.

A fact that should be mentioned is that in 2024 all public administrations registered a slight increase in terms of the total transparency score. If in 2022, no LPA of level II and I obtained the A+ rating, which means that no district/locality reached a transparency level between 80-100%, in 2024, the municipality of Bălți obtained 87 transparency points, falling into the A+ ranking, and the Strașeni District was very close to achieving this ranking, obtaining 78 points out of a total. However, in the top of the districts that climbed the ranking, we mention the Nisporeni district (evolved by 22 places), the Soldănești district (evolved by 15 places), the Cantemir district (evolved by 12 places). But the evolution of municipalities and communes is best seen, so Ștefan Vodă evolved by 37 places in the ranking and reached 6th place, Otaci evolved by 31 places and Glodeni by 28 places, occupying 25th and 7th place respectively in the ranking.

We note that the study is developed according to a well-defined methodology, taking over the Slovak experience in order to promote transparency in the activity of local public administration of level I and level II.

The level of transparency of districts and the largest localities in Moldova is presented on the local government transparency portal: http://localtransparency.viitorul.org/. The website allows citizens to evaluate the activity of local public authorities, compare several localities or districts and even create their own ranking.

The study conducted has as a priority the appreciation of the work of local public administrations, as well as motivating them to improve their efforts and act transparently to provide information of public interest to citizens.