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Experts in the field point out that, in the last three years, personnel costs have almost doubled and, in the case of Bihor City Council, are three times higher than those of investments. In fact, even Ilie Bolojan points out that, in four years, with the money saved by reducing the administrative apparatus, a new bridge can be built in Oradea.
Just a week after his appointment, Ilie Bolojan stated that he wants only 88 of the 174 employees of Bihor City Council to remain, since many of the employees of the institution do not really have the “object of work”. He said that, after an analysis, he found that “in almost all departments the staffing scheme was overloaded” and that “there are entire structures without activity objects.” He gave as an example the structure that, on paper, deals with the management of protected areas, given that “for more than two years its management has been carried out by a state authority, and the employees of the structure actually had other tasks.” Likewise, Bolojan showed that he found a true parallel CJ, that is, “a tourist address in front of the theater (no – National Center for Tourist Information and Promotion)”, but also another in front of the City Hall (no – Destination Management Agency), ironically saying that “that is why the works on Ferdinand Square were not finished on time, that there were queues of tourists” with which these structures were confronted.
Ilie Bolojan is a credible political figure
The former mayor of Oradea and the current president of the Bihor City Council said the planned reorganization is not a simple process whereby “your politicians are replaced by our politicians,” and Elena Calistru, president of the non-governmental organization Funky Citizens, believes that CV El de Bolojan makes him credible for such a judgment.
“Ilie Bolojan is not a politician without achievements at all. Let’s not forget that during his time as Secretary of State he managed to make the passport service one of the most efficient processes we have. It is the place where everything still takes a long time. And that’s why I don’t think we’re talking about a political measure, and from his previous experiences, that kind of thing is part of the man’s curriculum, the one who visibly reformed the structures of public administration. At the same time, we cannot ignore the continuous increase in personnel costs at the level of the public administration, which has increased constantly in recent years, especially if we take into account what a County Council does, which does not have many functions in the administration. of public services, we cannot say that a County Council has the salaries of teachers or doctors on its payroll.As figures, in 2016, before the enactment of the salary law, one of the causes that led to the increase in administrative costs, in the county councils, the total they spent in the country was around 2.2 billion lei. In 2019 we are already talking about 3.7 billion. We are talking about a significant increase in a short time, which is reflected in the budgets of the county councils ”, declared Calistru.
In Elena Calistru’s opinion, reports such as those in Bihor, where investment funds are three times smaller than those with staff, are unsustainable, and in her opinion the cause of this phenomenon is the poor way in which the process was carried out. decentralization.
“In Bihor, at the end of 2019, the budget execution shows that 82.8 million lei have been spent, personnel costs. In capital expenditures, that is, investments, we have 24.6 million lei. We are talking about a worrying report , because in theory, a county council is the one that deals with the strategic development of the county, such as county roads, or it can successfully take care of a county hospital, or it can take care of the welfare part. performance in areas that smaller city councils cannot solve on their own.The role of these city councils is to take over the larger infrastructure projects that a smaller city council, commune or city would not have.
Why do we have this phenomenon? I think we are talking about a structural problem in the first place. In recent years, decentralization has meant less direct work with some direct public services or building some things, but it has remained highly dependent on the benevolent pen of a minister. And then obviously you’re not trying to make an efficient, flexible administrative apparatus that you can deliver to citizens, but one that racks up some fixed expenses every year, so you sit back and wait for your money to arrive. budget. We practically did not have a real decentralization process, in our country it was rather a bird of responsibility without allocating the necessary resources for it. The local administration continues to be at the mercy of the pen of a minister ”, stressed Elena Calistru.
The costs of oversizing the administrative apparatus
In fact, Ilie Bolojan declared for Ziare.com that the artificial oversizing of the public administration represents a gap for local budgets and affirms that by reducing the staff of the Provincial Council in the next legislature it will be possible to save the costs of a new bridge about Crisul Repede in Oradea.
“We have an oversizing of the administrative apparatus that is tolerated, but in reality they destroy public budgets. Let’s think that the economy that is made with this organization in its own device means more than one million euros a year. So at 3.3 million euros salaries, salary fund, including councilors’ allowances, the economy is at least one million euros a year, that is, in four years, a boat on Crisul Repede. That is worth a bridge over Crisul Repde of 80 million, in free translation If you look in Oradea, on the Centennial Bridge, you know how much that bridge cost, that is the situation, it is a pity that these public expenses with the personnel are out of control, practically vital resources being consumed with these things. organization, discipline and work for citizens, otherwise we make fun of them ”, he stressed, recalling the inauguration of the bridge in Oradea, which cost about 2.7 million euros.
Layoffs don’t automatically bring efficiency
Sorin Ionita, an EFOR public policy expert, points out that there is a cyclical phenomenon that in times of economic growth the administrative apparatus inflates, and in times of crisis the inevitable budget cuts result, which do not always equal the efficiency of public management . .
In times of a lot of money we invariably have an increase in the administrative apparatus, and when the crisis arrives and budget cuts are made, as it was after 2010 or now with Covid, the belt tightens and everyone runs where they can. That does not mean that it becomes more efficient. when a crisis comes, but only when expenses are reduced, and as they are reduced, God have mercy, it cuts where it should and where it should not be, and when it swells again in good times, so it should grow and where it should not.
It is a well-known technique in which new institutions, new agencies, companies or all kinds of extra-budgetary institutions are set up, because there you are no longer bound by the civil servant’s regime. Then you can give unpaid wages. And so it happened with the companies in Bucharest, because there is less transparency in budgets, less control, and you have no limitations on these. We can imagine that in Bihor, years in a row, all kinds of clients gathered, they planted people there, and it passed under governments, under successive administrations, and also went on to set up a structure. without activity object or agencies with the same activity object. There is no one left to check. That is, some belonged to the latter and others to those who came, and in order not to bother, they made two.
Let’s not wake up with any e-government reform they are left with now and also hire a bunch of IT guys to duplicate the current ones, to put them on the internet. It still won’t work and we will have a double number, where some will help others to get into the computer. Let’s not fool ourselves. There is no administrative reform to reduce the budget, it is at most a priority in the branch. The number one objective must be the effectiveness of the institution, have people with whom it can coordinate and produce quality things, have a strategic vision and not reduce expenses ”, said Sorin Ionita.
The common man cannot conceive of waste in the administrative apparatus
According to economist Radu Nechita, associate professor at Babes-Bolyai University, the average person cannot even conceive of the amounts of money that are wasted each year due to artificial oversizing of the administrative apparatus. Tens and hundreds of millions swallowed up by a bureaucracy, whose natural reflex is to expand, are ultimately just statistical numbers for the common man, struggling to survive from one month to the next, and does not see what this really means. waste.
“Romania is a colony of the Romanian state and where what in the literature is called extractive institutions dominates. The administrative apparatus like any other bureaucracy tends to maximize its budget, to expand. And in Romania this mechanism is further amplified by a should not We are surprised that when politicians have the opportunity to spend money that is not theirs, they spend it in their own interest. The administration is inevitably connected by the political parties of the Christmas carol the purpose is to gain or maintain power which is achieved, in part, satisfying its own supporters. Obviously, for this purpose there are several sinecures, it is possible to spend budgets, to demand money from the center, a fact sustained by a lack of transparency that is not by chance. The way in which public money is spent is in the interest of of those who are on the right side of the pen and stamp.
A man who dramatizes his minimum or average salary month by month does not perceive the magnitude of the amounts wasted in the administration. Sure, Mr. Bolojan talks about the money for the construction of a new bridge through these cuts, but most of the time the budget waste remains at the level of the statistics, without being able to really realize how huge these sums are. This is the reason why drugs always come to us in the form: “the state must.” Every time someone says that “the state owes”, one hundred thousand, one million lei are added to public spending. More jobs are being created in administration. When we replace the state with the politicians in this sentence, our agreement for a policy, by any measure, will drastically decrease, ”says economist Radu Nechita.
Read also:
Ilie Bolojan, head of the Bihor county council, on the only measure in Romania to lay off half of the employees of a public institution: in three years, it means the cost of a new bridge
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