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MOLDOVA |
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MOLDOVA |
HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK
It is difficult to identify any training or academic activities in public administration being developed in the newly independent Republic of Moldova. The country’s unstable evolution includes two centuries of invasions and forced annexations to neighbouring states. One event followed the other so rapidly that it was practically impossible to establish a competent educational institution focused on public administration. Such programs were typically provided either in Russia or in Romania.
Moldova, as with many CIS countries, had a limited government machinery, with all policy decisions being made within the communist party structure. There is only one major institution providing academic programs in the field of public administration – a young one - the Academy of Public Administration under the government of the Republic of Moldova.
The Academy of Public Administration (APA) was created by presidential decree no. 73 in May 1993 to help fill a complete void in provisions for civil service management and human resources development in Moldova. To be more precise, the goal of the decree was to create an institution capable of training local and central civil servants to work in the framework of a market economy and a democratic society.
APA was considered as early as 1992 and was endorsed at that time by Paul Light, a representative of the National Academy of Public Administration of the United States. He and others sought to identify priority areas to facilitate the development of a constitutional democracy and a market economy. At that time, in sharp contrast to Hungary, Poland and other East European countries outside the former Soviet Union, the Republic of Moldova lacked a general institution for training civil servants (other than the police) at any level, and, in fact, it lacked a comprehensive basic civil service system. In the past, training for middle and upper level administrators had generally been performed in Moscow and Kiev, except for fragmented lower echelons in various agencies. Civil service cadres were identified with their separate, isolated ministries, departments or other organisations and were subject to party control and coordination from outside Moldova. In short, little sense of Moldovan government service existed, and there was no institutional framework to change this situation. Lacking the preconditions of a stable and effective government, prospects for privatisation and market mechanisms were not optimistic.
In January and February 1993, Nesta Gallas and Edward Gallas, Senior Fellows of the National Academy of Public Administration in the United States, studied the Moldovan environment. They found an urgent need for institutional support oriented to informed decision-making and coordination in government. They were concerned with the absence of institutional responsibility for human resources management beyond the administration of civil service compensation by the Ministry of Labour. They urged prompt action to strengthen the State Chancellery’s role as a coordinator, including the creation of an academy of public administration, and they noted needs for international assistance to support the academy.
Moldova rapidly moved ahead to create the Academy of Public Administration, utilising recommendations provided by various needs assessment studies. The academy started the first session of classes in September 1993. Despite the absence of follow-up aid, after two years of external needs evaluations, the APA embraced a design that was remarkably contemporary in terms of successful public administration programs in Western constitutional democracies.
Because Moldova formerly had no institutions in the field, in contrast to former Soviet bloc countries in Central and Eastern Europe, an exceptionally contemporary approach to institution building and the curriculum has been possible. With only a limited understanding of Western public administration, Moldova has sought to develop the institutional capacity for training and education in policy analysis, development and evaluation of specific public policies and disciplined responsiveness to economic, business and social needs. It has also attempted to focus on policy-program implementation and key disciplines of administrative management, including finance and budgeting, human resources management, general services (property, supplies, equipment, logistics, etc.), information systems and communication. Most importantly, the academy seemed to aspire to facilitate the training of high-quality management that is responsive to citizens and guided by the rule of law.
While these modern practices were evident in the seven parts of the academy’s curriculum plan, the new institution lacked both experienced faculty and adequate library and classroom resources to develop training activities and provide outreach assistance to practitioners. Some APA faculty members readily noted that they barely understood some of the fields’ basics and few of the complex ideas and practices, and they lacked expertise and experience to implement them.
Since early 1994, the Academy of Public Administration of the Republic of Moldova has benefited from various projects financed and implemented by foreign donor-organisations (e.g., the Eurasia Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development, the Soros Foundation, the Greek government and Centre National de la Fonction Publique Territoriale [CNFPT]), the largest being a four-year project implemented within the framework of the TACIS Program. This has helped make the academy into a strong institution of higher education, with a well-designed structure, and adequate faculty and administrative personnel, capable of accomplishing foreseeable objectives in the field of public administration training, studies and consulting.
Nevertheless, Moldova is experiencing great economic difficulties that, in turn, impede political, social and cultural development. In such circumstances, even though the APA is well equipped, external assistance is still needed to successfully continue its activities. If such assistance is provided and sustained for a reasonable period, the Academy of Public Administration may emerge as a unique example in Central and Eastern Europe.
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