The complicated administrative structure of the city of Chisinau is symptomatic of the municipality’s budgeting practices, which do not encourage transparency and reflect the inconsistency of Moldovan laws and of its system of financial planning. An alternative to the traditional system is the performance budget implemented in many Polish cities, modeled on U.S. solutions. The appropriateness of performance budget systems for Moldova was perceived by PAUCI through previous projects financed by the Polish Aid – a development assistance programme of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs - and the United Nations Development Programme.

The project activities covered the preparatory stage of the introduction of performance budget in Chisinau city (2010-2011). Activities consisted of the series of trainings for Chisinau all-sector partners engaged in the budget formation process. Trainings were conducted by joint team of Polish and Moldovan experts and have been supported by two study visits to Poland (Krakow, Tarnow, Krosno, Warsaw) and the internships of Chisinau budget specialists in Krakow, the first Polish city which introduced the performance budget (1994). The 2010 activities have been summed-up during the international conference in Chisinau and by the creation of the Chisinau Performance Budget Task Force. In 2011 specialists of Chisinau Municipal Administration prepared the first drafts of the Chisinau performance budgets under the supervision of Polish and Moldovan experts (case study continuing training). Preliminary results of work on the preparatory stage have been presented during a summing-up meeting (October 2011, Chisinau). The mid-term evaluation has been provided by the professional, external evaluator and her recommendations will influence the follow-up activities.  The implementation stage will take place 2012-2013. It is planned that as the result of both stages, the Chisinau will use official performance budget from 2014.

The project promoted good governance in the city of Chisinau, especially improvement of city financial management by introducing the performance budgets model based on the experience of selected Polish cities. All the participants become familiar with performance budgets, studied important principles of good governance, especially transparency of public finances, efficiency and rationality of expenditures, social participation in planning, monitoring and evaluation of budgets. In details:

• Almost 100 persons (councilmen, officials, representatives of municipal companies, representatives of NGOs) gained basic knowledge on the specificity of performance budgeting;
• 20 specialists obtained deep knowledge on performance budgeting  through 3 days training;
• 13 representatives of all-sector and 6 decision-makers studied the practice of performance budgeting in Kraków, Warsaw, Tarnow and Krosno;
• 2 Chisinau budget specialists studied the experience of Krakow in the sphere of budgetary reform implementation and gained permanent contacts with Krakow specialists;
• 45 budget specialists participated in the December’s conference.