The Moldova Project raises new claims of jobs for PAS insiders
Victoria Furtună, leader of Moldova Mare and a former prosecutor, has accused Prime Minister Vasile Tofan of betraying his promise to cut the state apparatus, saying his government has slashed 60 million lei from pregnant women, children and poor families while creating a new, better-paid structure for relatives and insiders linked to PAS.
For Furtună, The Moldova Project is not reform, but political patronage dressed up as modernisation. At a time when the authorities claim there is no money, she argues, the government is taking funds away from vulnerable citizens while opening another route into the state system for those close to power.
“I had no expectations of Mr Tofan from the very beginning. His professional background is in consulting firms that value and sell off assets. He has a short-term mindset, not a long-term strategic vision,” Furtună said.
In her view, instead of bringing order to an inflated state apparatus, the authorities are creating yet more structures. She pointed in particular to the appointment of Mircea Eșanu, until recently director of the Public Services Agency (ASP), as head of the new structure, The Moldova Project.
“He is moving into a new post without any competition, and his salary will be 10 times higher,” the Moldova Mare leader said.
‘This is not public administration, it is absurd’
Furtună noted that, despite a budget deficit of 23 billion lei, the government is not cutting spending but creating another institution which, in her view, duplicates the work of ministries and departments.
“Instead of cutting funding for political parties, which receive 66.6 million lei a year, what do they do? They cut 60 million lei from payments to pregnant women, children and vulnerable families. Instead of preparing the country for winter and restoring relations with the East, what do they do? They organise conferences and concerts all over Moldova,” the former prosecutor said.
She argues that new state bodies are being created not to develop the country, but to finance “their own people”.
“The creation of new institutions gives every reason to suspect that budget money is being used to finance relatives and people close to PAS. How else can you explain why they keep creating so many structures when ministries and state institutions already exist?” Furtună said.
State sector grows as private employment falls
Statistics appear to support the critics’ argument. Irina Vlah published figures showing that, during five years of PAS rule, the private sector lost 49,000 workers while the state sector grew by 65,000.
“Today, businesses support more than 600,000 pensioners and 310,000 public-sector employees. Spending on state structures has risen by 7 billion lei. And the authorities complain that there is no money and tell us to tighten our belts,” Vlah said.
In 2021, the private sector employed 71.2% of the working population. By the second quarter of 2026, that figure had fallen to 63.9%. The state sector’s share, by contrast, rose from 28.8% to 36.1%.
That growth did not mean more doctors, teachers or police officers, whose numbers continued to fall. Instead, the number of ministry employees increased by around 26,000.
Against this background, the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (LDPM) has demanded that the government provide exact figures on how many real employees will lose their jobs under Tofan’s announced “optimisation” of the state apparatus, and how many of the supposed cuts will simply remove already vacant posts.
The authorities have said they intend to reorganise 161 institutions, affecting around 52,000 employees and reducing staffing levels by 10–30%. According to LDPM, however, the public sector already has a serious staff shortage: in the second quarter of 2026 there were 13,300 vacancies in the budget sector, while in public administration and defence 13.1% of jobs were vacant.
“If 15–20% of posts in an institution are already vacant, and the staffing table is cut by 20%, a large part of that ‘optimisation’ may simply mean deleting empty positions from the payroll,” LDPM warned.
Critics say bureaucracy is being protected, not cut
Opposition politicians broadly agree that nothing will change unless the authorities start making real cuts to the administrative apparatus. Blogger Vlad Bilețchi commented on the published figures in similar terms.
“If the figures are right, we have quite a situation: more officials, fewer people working in the private sector. In other words, instead of the engine of the economy growing, the administrative machine seems to have put on weight. And the bill, obviously, is still left to those who work and pay taxes. Perhaps, before asking more of citizens and entrepreneurs, the state should put its own house in order first,” he said.
Furtună urged people not to have any illusions.
“Look at who works there: people close to PAS. There is nothing left to interpret. It is all in plain sight. You just have to analyse it,” she said.
For Furtună, The Moldova Project has become a test case for Tofan’s promises to trim the state. Instead of cutting bureaucracy, she argues, the government is creating new offices, better-paid posts and another route into the state system for those already close to power.
