Author: Irina Papuc
The Minister of Health, Ruxanda Glavan, who is also the Chair of the National TB/AIDS Coordination Council, refuses to comment publically on the exclusion, with obvious violations, of the nongovernmental organizations from the decision-making process regarding the drafting of the application for continuing the HIV Grant from the Global Fund. The official refused to comment on this case, including upon the request coming from the editorial office of Sănătate INFO.
Almost two weeks have passed since the CCM decision. While the sub-recipient organizations talk about the violation of legal provisions, lack of transparency and no reaction, the Ministry of Health continues to keep silence. The Minister of Health, who is also the Chair of the CCM is under direct focus. Hence, we have insisted to obtain an answer from her, and namely we asked her how she explains the violations admitted during the meeting held on 29 June by the CCM – the structure that she leads, as the authorities have to explain to the international structures why the law was violated.
We would like to remind the reasoning provided by the nongovernmental organizations, including PAS Center: “The updated list of the members holding the right to vote or those with delegated right to vote was not announced, and this is in contradiction with the provisions of the Government Decision No. 825 of 3 August 2005, as well as with the provisions of the Operational Manual. Persons who were not CCM members and respectively do not have the right to vote were admitted to vote. Unknown participants were present during the meeting, and they did not justify their presence through representation mandates. And finally, the decision was adopted with missing necessary number of votes, as only 10 out of 28 present persons voted for”, this was mentioned in the letter sent to the CCM and signed by a number of nongovernmental organizations directly involved in projects dealing with risk groups infected with HIV/AIDS.
It should be also mentioned that the Minister of Health received last week our articles related to this topic also by e-mail. Today, Ruxanda Glavan again refused to answer our questions. The organizations from the CCM which have condemned the unilateral decision of their exclusion specify that they have informed on the 4th of July the members of the Global Fund Administration Board, the Global Fund Grants Portfolio Manager in Moldova - Tsovinar Sakanyan, and the constituents of the NGOs from the developing countries and Eastern Europe and Central Asia states. The European Union Ambassador in Chisinau was also informed, as well as Vinay P. Saldanha, Director of the Regional Support Team for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Michel Kazatchkine, special representative of the UN General Secretary for HIV / AIDS in Eastern European and Central Asia.
Meanwhile, the Government seems to share the same policy of marginalizing and taking down the nongovernmental organizations. A number of NGOs have signed a public call, through which they express their concern regarding the proposals coming from the Minister of Justice, Vladimir Cebotari, to amend the legislation so as to prohibit NGOs’ financing from foreign sources. The signatory organizations warn that there is a risk for numerous NGOs simply to stop operating and reiterate that the Republic of Moldova undergoes the risk of violating the provisions of the Association Agreement, signed with the European Union, which encourages the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, including the civil society organizations, in drafting polices and reforms in the Republic of Moldova. The civil society recalls that the State of the Republic of Moldova itself benefits from continuous financial support provided by the development partners. Hence, the restricted foreign financing for the nongovernmental sector is at least disproportional.
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