The Government will establish a new institution tasked with implementing strategic projects, Prime Minister Vasile Tofan announced. The institution, called “Moldova Project,” will be headed by Mircea Eșanu, the current director of the Public Services Agency.
“The new institution will initially have a maximum staff of 26 people, mainly made up of employees from reorganized structures. No new bureaucracy will be created, and the size of the central public administration will not be increased. On the contrary, existing people, expertise and experience will be brought together in one unit to build permanent capacity for implementing strategic projects,” the prime minister said.
According to Tofan, the model is not being developed from scratch. It draws on the experience of countries such as Lithuania, Ireland and Montenegro, which have concentrated implementation capacity for major projects within dedicated structures.
The announcement sparked criticism from the opposition during Thursday’s plenary session, September 17. Opposition MPs requested that Prime Minister Vasile Tofan be heard by Parliament over the planned creation of the Office for the Implementation of Strategic Infrastructure Projects.
PSRM MP Vlad Batrîncea pointed to Tofan’s previous commitments to reduce government spending and questioned the need for another structure within the Government.
“The new structure will have expenses of around 50 million lei. Mr. Tofan, you publicly committed to reducing the number of agencies and staff, cutting expenditures, and managing public money more efficiently and transparently. We do not understand where Mr. Tofan will additionally find 50 million lei,” Batrîncea said.
The PAS parliamentary faction voted against the initiative.