Romania’s government comes up with draft for public administration reform

The government of Romania has completed the public administration reform draft, the last of the laws included in the second package of budgetary reforms. The draft, published by Cursdeguvernare.ro, envisages not only plans to reduce personnel and related expenditures, but broader measures aimed at streamlining all expenditures across the public administration.

The budgetary impact will thus be larger than that calculated by the executive based on only personnel reductions: RON 3.4 billion this year (EUR 630 million or 0.16% of GDP) and RON 5.4 billion per year afterwards.

According to prime minister Ilie Bolojan, administrative reform is necessary not only to reduce expenses but also to strengthen the capacity of the administration, especially the local one, to be more efficient and collect taxes. From the additional money collected in local budgets, administrative-territorial units can make investments.

After the adoption of this regulation, the government will be in a position to approve the state budget law, having all the elements for the new dimensioning of revenues and expenditures.

Within 6 months of the entry into force of this normative act, it is proposed that all administrative-territorial units must register in the National Electronic Online Payment System - SNEP. Failure to comply with this obligation will lead to the cessation of the provision of quotas deducted from income tax and amounts from state budget revenues intended to balance local budgets.

The project is expected to be approved next week, with the government promoting it in Parliament by the accelerated procedure that involves no vote but gives the opposition the chance to file a no-confidence motion.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)