Former Prime Minister Ion Chicu has accused the government of sharply expanding staffing at ministries and central institutions while reducing the number and capacity of local authorities.
After examining changes in public-sector employment over recent years, Chicu, who chairs the Party of Development and Consolidation of Moldova, argued that the government’s administrative reform has failed to make public services more accessible. Instead, he said, central government staffing has almost doubled in several institutions over four years, even as local administrations are being consolidated or abolished.
Central government staffing rises sharply
Chicu cited figures showing that the State Chancellery Moldova increased its workforce from 202 to 379 employees, an expansion he said was equivalent to the combined staffing of around 20 mayor’s offices. The Ministry of Justice reportedly grew from 94 employees to 155, an increase of 66 positions. Staffing at the former Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure rose from 156 to 308, almost doubling.
The ministry responsible for agriculture and the environment employed 121 specialists in 2021, compared with 206 now. The Ministry of Health expanded from 105 to 219 employees, while the Ministry of Education grew from 112 to 179. According to Chicu, the number of ministries has increased from nine to 16, while the total number of central government officials has risen by around 80% in four years.
He questioned how the authorities could justify this central government staffing growth while asking citizens to accept fewer local institutions and more limited access to municipal services.
MoldATSA employment dispute adds to criticism
Chicu also referred to the controversy surrounding the state-owned air navigation company MoldATSA. National Moldovan Party chairman Dragoș Galbur previously alleged that Anastasia Taburceanu, a cousin of President Maia Sandu, had been employed by the company without an open competition and was earning more than 70,000 lei a month.
Taburceanu confirmed that she worked at MoldATSA, but said her basic monthly salary was 25,700 lei, with additional allowances. She also confirmed that no competition had been held, explaining that her position was not managerial and that the company’s procedures allowed certain employees to be recruited based on their CVs and professional experience.
“Maia’s cousin receives a generous salary at MoldATSA, but she works very hard, poor thing. The latest item published on the institution’s official page dates from May 2025. It is obvious that the president’s cousin has been given a nominal position at MoldATSA and receives tens of thousands of lei from a state institution every month without actually working there,” Chicu stated.
His assertion that the position is fictitious has not been independently established.
Reform shifts resources away from local authorities
Chicu argued that the expansion of ministries is taking place at the expense of mayor’s offices and other local institutions. In his view, the reform is reducing citizens’ ability to resolve problems close to home while concentrating more staff and resources in Chișinău.
“These simple calculations show that, while reducing the number of mayor’s offices, the authorities are expanding staffing in central government institutions. What kind of reform are we implementing? And how do we explain to our grandmothers that the State Chancellery is hiring another 56 people while they are losing the opportunity to go to their local mayor’s office to resolve a problem?” he claimed.
Chicu translated the staffing increases at individual ministries into the equivalent number of local administrations, estimating that each expansion represented the staffing of between eight and 20 villages. He said the figures exposed a contradiction at the heart of the reform: local government is being reduced in the name of efficiency, while central government staffing continues to rise.
The former prime minister argued that the MoldATSA controversy further reinforced concerns that public money was being directed towards questionable appointments and an expanding bureaucracy rather than essential services for citizens.
