The merger of mayor’s offices in Ungheni district (raion) moved from principles to numbers on Wednesday, July 15. On the same day that the Ungheni Municipality Mayor’s Office presented the common vision for the future administrative-territorial unit (ATU) — a 78-page document, publicly available on the particip.gov.md platform — at the other end of the district, in Rădenii Vechi, residents debated the draft decision of the cluster around Pîrlița at the village assembly. And the voting calendar already exists, in black and white, in the mayors’ convening orders: July 17 in Florițoaia Veche, July 27 in Pîrlița, July 31 — the date in the letterhead of the Sculeni draft.
What the „vision” says about a mayor’s office for 42.000 residents
The document — titled „Vision of the amalgamated ATU within the Ungheni – Zagarancea – Mănoilești – Valea Mare – Morenii Noi – Florițoaia Veche – Cetireni – Unțești – Costuleni – Brătuleni cluster” — describes, across five dimensions, how the single administration would work: institutional structure and human resources, public services, public institutions, property and finances.
The central formula, quoted from the document, reads as follows.
A single, professional administration, with expanded competences in public services, with greater administrative and financial capacity, present in every locality for all of the roughly 42.000 residents.
„Vision of the amalgamated ATU within the Ungheni cluster”, July 2026
The most concrete figure concerns staff: the proposed staffing plan of the single mayor’s office would have 128 positions, compared with almost 152 (151,75) — the total across the ten administrations today — a reduction of about 16%. In exchange, fields that small mayor’s offices cannot afford now would appear: urban planning, legal, internal audit. The document was drafted participatively, in workshops with the mayors and specialists of the ten localities, with methodological support from UNDP.
The accompanying draft decision — published in the same consultation — estimates the cumulative population at 42.316 residents and records that Ungheni municipality „obtained the highest score” in the evaluation for the administrative center of the future unit. The figure is lower than the estimate of „around 44.000” circulated at the launch of the process, in June.
Recommendations stay open for another week — but one council meets Friday
The public consultation on the text of the decision remains open until July 22 — anyone can submit recommendations through the particip.gov.md platform, as we reported when this stage opened.
One calendar detail deserves attention, though: the Florițoaia Veche commune council is convened in ordinary session on Friday, July 17, at 14.00, and item 5 on the agenda is precisely „the voluntary amalgamation of certain administrative-territorial units” — five days before the public consultation closes. The convening order, signed by mayor Frasin Dumitru, does not specify whether this is the final vote on the amalgamation decision.
After the local councils adopt their decisions, the cluster’s consolidated file goes to the State Chancellery, which prepares the draft law establishing the new unit — the step that makes the merger irreversible.
Pîrlița: residents have seen the draft decision; the vote is set for July 27
In the cluster in the west of the district — Pîrlița, Agronomovca, Alexeevca, Rădenii Vechi and Teșcureni — the process has also reached the final document. On Wednesday, at the Cultural Center in Rădenii Vechi, the village assembly reviewed the draft decision on the amalgamation of the five localities; according to the mayor’s office, residents could ask questions and put forward proposals, with explanations offered by Ion Poia, head of the Ungheni Territorial Office of the State Chancellery. It is the next step after the assemblies of July 7, which presented only the „Development Vision”.
Residents of Rădenii Vechi can still send recommendations on the draft until July 20, to primariaradeniivechi@gmail.com or directly at the mayor’s office.
The vote is already scheduled: by order no. 89 of July 13, the mayor of Pîrlița commune, Stanislav Babuțac, convened the extraordinary session of the council for July 27, at 14.00, with the amalgamation of the five localities on the agenda.
Sculeni: July 31, in the draft’s letterhead
The district’s third merger nucleus — Sculeni, Cioropcani, Buciumeni plus Taxobeni from Fălești district — has its own draft decision under public consultation until July 22. The document, numbered „05/02 of July 31, 2026”, indicates the date the vote is scheduled in the commune council and estimates the population of the future unit at 7.430 residents, with Sculeni as the administrative center.
The financial stakes
The government ties amalgamation to concrete money: localities that merge receive an incentive of 3.000 lei for every resident of the resulting unit. For the Ungheni cluster — in the eight-locality configuration of an earlier government press release — the executive announced „resources worth over 151 million lei”.
The more public administrations join forces, the more water and sewerage, road and lighting projects will reach our villages.
Vitalie Vrabie, mayor of Ungheni municipality
How you can weigh in, concretely
For the Ungheni municipality cluster, recommendations on the draft decision can be submitted until July 22 through the consultation page on particip.gov.md. For the Pîrlița cluster, residents of Rădenii Vechi have until July 20 (primariaradeniivechi@gmail.com). For the Sculeni cluster, comments are likewise accepted until July 22, through the dedicated consultation.