Romania's labor minister Violeta Alexandru announced an "ambitious project" aimed at counting the people paid from public money.

"I have communicated to the Labour Inspectorate my resolution about beginning this ambitious project, which I will closely monitor step by step," the minister said on Monday, April 13, local Agerpres reported.

She said that, at this moment, there are three figures: 1.4 million "state employees" [meaning in public institutions and legal entities controlled by state], 1.7 mln including military and ANFP (the national agency of public servants), and 1.2 million employees "in the budgetary sector" as counted by the Finance Ministry. It's not clear if these figures also include the employees in state-owned companies and companies owned by the regional authorities.

Minister Alexandru announced that a big database of all the employees in Romania would be created, and those paid from public money will be marked as such in that database.

"It is not going to be easy. [...]. [But] the 4.5 million employees in the private sector deserve this. We are starting," the labor minister announced.

Romania spent last year one-third of its public budget, or nearly 10% of GDP, for paying wages and bonuses. 

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Violeta Alexandru)