Mayoralties from Bălţi, Cahul and Cimişlia, and the Rayon Councils from Strășeni, Fălețti and Cahul were awarded by IDIS "Viitorul" to ensure transparency in the activity of the local public administration. The award ceremony took place on November 8, at a public conference.

According to the monitoring report on the evolution of local public administrations in their opening to the citizens, the most open municipalities in Moldova are Bălţi (82 points), Cimişlia (62 points) and Cahul (62 points). These mayoralties were in the top 10 most transparent localities in 2017. Thus, only the Bălți Town Hall published on the official website - http://balti.md, the public procurement contracts held last year. Also, on the Bălți Town Hall web page are presented the results of the public auctions, with the indication of the real estate, the address, the surface, the destination, the price and the decision of the town council. "In order to ensure transparency, the Bălți Town Hall publishes a calendar of events on the website, we broadcast live all the events and we have even two new web sections" Your opinion counts" and "Feedback", because the opinion of the citizens about the activity of the town hall is important for us" , says Irina Serdiuc, Secretary of the Balti Municipal Council.

Cahul Town Hall, which is the second most transparent authority in the country, publishes, together with the Strășeni Town Hall, the activity reports and annual financial analyzes of municipal enterprises in 2017. On the web site of Cahul - http://www.primariacahul.md/, as well as that of Cimislia, we find the mayors' wealth statements.

Besides the municipalities in those three towns, the rayon councils also received transparency awards. Thus, according to the latest ranking of IDIS "Viitorul", the most open rayon authorities in Moldova are Strășeni (78 points), Fălești (64 points) and Cahul (58 points). The Strășeni Rayon Council publishes all draft decisions of the rayon council on the web - www.crstraseni.md, providing enough time for interested persons to analyze them. Also, draft decisions are easy to find on the web page. The Strășeni District Council is also the best example of participation in the decision-making process at rayon level. The rayon administration in Strășeni publishes the procurement contracts on the web page and the detailed information about the types of social services, being an example to be followed for all the districts of the country. "The achievement of a high degree of transparency in the decision-making process depends very much on the activity of the entire team of authority, the knowledge of the legislation in the field, the professionalism and the responsibility in the accomplishment of the established tasks", stresses Mihail Popa, president of Strășeni rayon.

At the same time, only the Fălești administration has published on the web the CV of the municipal enterprise managers and the annual financial analyzes, being the best example in this chapter. "Transparency is a process of daily activity aimed at making public authorities more efficient and increasing the trust of the population in the administrative act. We consider our rationality authority to have a high degree of transparency by ensuring the participation of civil society in the process of administration and decision making", says Iraida Bîzari, president of Fălești rayon.

Even if it has accumulated 58 points out of 100, the Cahul Rayon Council advanced the most in the ranking (from 29th place in 2016 to 3rd in 2018). In this respect, the Rayon Council for participation was created, all the draft decisions and the approved decisions are made public on the website http://cahul.md/ and the citizens are actively involved in public consultations and hearings. "The Cahul Rayon Council tends to increase the accountability of the public administration towards the citizen, because it is the beneficiary of the approved decisions. The active involvement of citizens in the drafting of normative acts is an objective that we lead in daily activity", says the secretary of the Cahul Rayon council, Cornelia Prepeliţă.

All winning authorities were awarded trophies and honorable diplomas.

Top of the most transparent municipalities in the Republic of Moldova can be found on the open data portal: http://localtransparency.viitorul.org/.

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The event was held within the initiative „Promoting transparency and financial sustainability of regional policies, state – owned enterprises and local authorities in Moldova", implemented by IDIS "Viitorul",  in partnership with the Institute for Economic and Social Reforms in Slovakia (INEKO). The initiative is financially supported by the Official Development Assistance of the Slovak Republic (SlovakAid). It aims to improve the efficiency of the state administration, self-government and civil society in the area of creation and control of regional policies, administration of state-owned enterprises, and monitoring of budgets and information openness of municipalities.

For details, contact Ana – Maria Veverita: ana.veverita@viitorul.org or at phone number (0 22) 221844