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Saying goodbye to ZAGS: Old, inefficient and bloated government registries take up real estate that can be sold or used better

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - In a groundbreaking rejection of its former Communist past, reforms in Pridnestrovie are privatizing key government tasks and letting private companies perform registry functions for a profit.

On Monday, the PMR Parliament's Committee for Legislation met to discuss amendments for the third reading of a new law on private notaries and registrars.

A number of public services which are currently handled by PMR's government will be assigned to private firms from now on. Parliament envisions that quality and prices of registry and notary functions will improve with free market competition.

According to the Press Service of Pridnestrovie's Parliament, the Notary Bill regulates both the existing state-run notary’s offices and also regulates the opening of new private sector notary’s offices to be operated at a profit.
The bill was previously given two readings and approved, but considering the complexity and wide range of areas the Bill might affect the Committee proposed to amend 11 current laws and Codes of PMR in order to make them more competitive.

Private notaries will not receive any public funding and must finance themselves entirely out of user fees.

Government and private sector to share responsibilities; compete

The current "ZAGS" civil registries won't be disappearing overnight. Some services will still be handled by government registrars, at least for the time being. But as the new private sector gets better at providing services which were previously the exclusive preserve of the government, legislators are prepared to expand their areas of responsibility. Eventually, says one MP, "the Darwinism of the market" will ensure that only the most efficient and best providers survive.

MP Galina Antufeeva is one of the members of parliament who is behind the new private takeover of tasks which previously were handled only by the government.

While former government functions are now being delegated to privately-run companies, legislators are also adding safeguards which protect the rights of citizens and consumers and prevent abuse by private operators.

" - We propose tougher penalties for offences committed by notaries for they should be aware of possible consequences of their actions towards citizens," says MP Galina Antufeeva, head of Parliament's Committee for Legislation.

The reforms are part of a trend of privatization of government services which also includes private-sector outsourcing of functions which in most other countries are generally performed by governments. These moves respond to government's failure to provide high quality services at a lower overall cost both to individual users and to government.

The Communist minority, which traditionally has supported the pervasive role of government, rejects the new reforms.

Reforms receive warm welcome, but not by Communists

The government's series of reforms have been positively welcomed by the most people among Pridnestrovie's 550,000-strong population.

Some locals believe that the reforms will result in better quality services, lower prices and more freedom of choice - all good things for a people who, in Soviet times, used to stand in line for DMV-like quality and an IRS-like respect for the customer.

" - In the new Pridnestrovie, the state exists for the sake of its citizens," says Oleg Lysenko, supervisor at a textile company on the outskirts of Tiraspol. "It is not the other way around anymore. The citizens no longer exist for the sake of the state."

Not everyone agree, however. Pridnestrovie's two small Communist parties, which were banned for part of the 1990's, are now legal again and have announced their "permanent opposition" to the government led by PMR President Igor Smirnov and to the reform legislation coming from the country's Parliament.

Communist Party boss Vladimir Gavrilchenko says that reforms in the economic area have to be reversed and all privatizations stopped. His views are shared by a minority of the voters. In the last election, the Communist candidate obtained 8% of the vote. Due to low voter support, the Communists have failed to get any of their candidates elected to Pridnestrovie's 43-member Parliament.

Also known under unofficial names such as Transnistria or Trans-Dniester, Pridnestrovie declared independence from the now-defunct Moldavian SSR in 1990. It is located between Moldova and Ukraine. It has a population which is approximately twice the size of Iceland and roughly the same size as Montenegro, which declared independence in 2006 and is today the newest member of the United Nations.

See also:
» After freedom and reform, Pridnestrovie says it is no longer Communist [1]
» Communists declare permanent opposition, demand reversal of reforms [2]
» Columnist: "Honey, I Shrunk The Country" [3]