Program Goal / Need:
This 28th month, $14.6 million, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Threshold program was designed to help Moldova become eligible for the Millennium Challenge Account by reducing corruption and improving the delivery of key public services. The main goal was to assist the Government of Moldova in effecting policy and system reforms to promote good governance, reduce corruption and improve public sector service delivery, particularly in the judicial, tax and health sectors. The project was active nationwide – involving the Supreme Court of Justice, all appellate and district courts in Moldova, all health care facilities, and all tax offices.
Program Description:
The contract was awarded to Millennium Partners under its Building Recovery and Reform Through Democratic Governance Indefinate Quantity contract. USAID managed the program for the MCC. This major governance reform program involved working with government counterparts for 28 months to advance reforms and improve efficiencies so that the public could be better served and the government capacities strengthened ensuring sustainability and country ownership. Millennium Partners managed this highly complex multi-sector governance program with over 60 staff and over $5 million in procurement and a monthly burn rate of over $500,000. The project supported counterparts in achieving Threshold Country Program actions in three components: Judicial, Health, and Tax Administration. Millennium Partners received an “outstanding “ rating from USAID which is available on the USG Past Performance Information Retrieval System.
Program Results:
With Millennium Partners’ assistance counterparts successfully completed all the following action items:
- Judicial Component: creating software for court case management, creating websites for all courts, providing audio recording equipment and software to all courts, supplying other IT equipment, training judges in the use of new computers and software, developing the concept of adequate judiciary funding, developing a code of ethics, modernizing selected pilot courts, developing sentencing guidelines, strengthening enforcement offices, and improving public access to court information.
- Health Component: 40 action items including the development of clinical protocols and standards and monitoring their implementation, preparing a code of ethics, creating web-pages for healthcare facilities, strengthening financial management, strengthening regulations to protect patient rights, protecting whistleblowers, conducting a patient satisfaction survey, strengthening the legal framework on physician practice, drafting mandatory liability insurance for physicians, creating an office of the Health Ombudsman, creating incentives and sanctions to ensure compliance with medical standards and protocols, developing procurement guidelines, strengthening infection control in healthcare facilities and improving quality assurance in medical laboratories.
- Tax Administration Component: creating a taxpayer customer service “call center,” strengthening IT capacity of the STI, strengthening audit and collection capacity of the STI, and supporting the implementation of a new eDeclaration system.
As a result of the accomplishments of this program, Moldova became an MCC compact country and Millennium Partners was asked to continue supporting the Moldovan government through the Moldova Rapid Governance Support Program, MRGSP and to build on successes and achievements.