Business representatives, elected officials and civil servants in the South of the country gave their met on October 9 in Cahul in the round table "Transparent and inclusive governance: participation of the business environment in the dialogue with public authorities". The event is part of a series of five round tables organized at national level, whose aim is to facilitate the creation of a constructive dialogue between public authorities and the business environment.

"Public authorities do not fully and responsibly fulfill their tasks under the law on transparency in decision-making, lacking a real dialogue between public authorities and business. The legal provisions in the field of decisional transparency are not observed, which leads to the adoption of norms that harm the business. And the normative acts are elaborated and adopted without the consultation or with the formal consultation of the business, without taking into account their recommendations”, is the opinion of Viorel Pirvan, lawyer within the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Policies (CAPE).

"The dialogue between the authorities and the business is inefficient, and the transparency is either formal or only at the stage of launching public consultations. On the one hand, the authorities accuse the economic agents that they are not involved enough in the decision-making process, and on the other hand, the business is tired of coming up with proposals that do not result in solving the problem", says economist Diana Enachi.

According to the representatives of the business environment present, their voice is not heard by the central authorities, the controls are oriented towards sanctions, the competition is unfair and the skilled labor force is missing.

„The biggest problem are the controls. The same information is required by two different tax controllers. And the search and presentation of information represents an additional effort and time allocated for the economic agent", considers Antonina Nazarchevici, the director of a company from Cahul.

"It is necessary to make purchases at the country level for certain specific categories of goods. However, we have a case of purchasing chemicals with a price three times higher through the auction compared to the direct conclusion of the contract with an economic agent, which delivers the product at a much lower price. And why is it accepted that economic agents pay less taxes than small or medium-sized entrepreneurs?” , Asks Gheorghe Ghețivu, the director of “Apa-Canal Cahul”.

For their part, local public authorities claim on the one hand that they involve business people in the decision-making process and offer certain benefits, but on the other hand, entrepreneurs continue to face problems due to bureaucracy.

"Cahul City Hall has good relations with business people and we regularly organize public consultations with them. We also have a regulation that provides a series of facilities for young entrepreneurs, namely that they are exempt from taxes in the first three years after launching the business", says Tatiana Romaniuc, deputy mayor of Cahul.

And Vasile Raru, head of the agriculture department within the Cahul DistrictmCouncil, says: “Because the metrological laboratories in Cahul have been liquidated, the economic agents in the district are forced to go to Chisinau or Comrat, incurring high expenses. We do not have specialists to work in public positions and a large part of those who work are already retired.”

At the same time, the mayor of Roșu village, Nicolae Savilencu claims that the one-stop shop exists only on paper, but it is a non-functional one in reality: “There are cases when an entrepreneur cannot complete an electronic application , because in the computer program there is no certain activity, and the company cannot help and issue permits. No one has shown or instructed us how to do this."

The issues and recommendations of the participants in the round table "Transparent and inclusive governance: participation of the business environment in the dialogue with public authorities" are to be examined and included in a position note from the business environment, subsequently submitted to the new Government.

Similar round tables will take place in the cities of Balti, Rezina and Soroca.