The president of the Bihor County Council, Ilie Bolojan, and the vice-presidents Mircea Mălan and Călin Gal presented today, April 25, during a press conference, the activity report for the 2020-2024 mandate.
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The teams from the Technical Department and the Economic Department from the Bihor County Council also participated in the press conference.
“All the good things that happened during this mandate, all the projects achieved are the credit of the whole team and we should thank them all for their collaboration. My finding is that it is not the people who work in the public system that are the problem of inefficiency and underperformance, it is the people who lead“, said Ilie Bolojan, the president of the Bihor County Council.
The administration of Bihor County in the period 2020-2024 was defined by three important characteristics: service to citizens, development and effective partnerships. During these years, resources were allocated and a number of concrete measures were taken to respond to the needs of the Bihoren and to create an environment for development in several areas.
Administration in the service of Bihorens
President Ilie Bolojan pointed out that the measures to reorganize the activity of the Bihor County Council and subordinate institutions through staff reductions reduced operating expenses and led to annual savings of 6 million euros, which were oriented towards investments.
“In this mandate, for the first time, performance indicators for town halls were introduced, with the mayors having an accurate diagnosis of administrative performance. The comparison with administrative-territorial units of the same size encouraged them to improve their performance. There was an improvement from year to year in many places, regardless of political color“, explained Ilie Bolojan.
Since taking over the mandate in 2020 until now, the projects started by the former administration of the Bihor County Council, such as the Sunset Road, the didactic swimming pools or the rehabilitation of some county roads, have been continued and completed.
Cleanliness in the county is an important objective of this mandate. In this sense, concrete measures have been taken, such as cleaning public roads, building a network of bulky waste platforms, adopting a cleanliness maintenance regulation, discouraging illegal waste storage by placing surveillance cameras on county and national roads, co-financing of town halls for the purchase of cleaning equipment and the commissioning of the Integrated Waste Management System.
In recent years, the emphasis has also been placed on supporting access to culture through investments in libraries, the continuous purchase of books and the construction of a multifunctional cultural center, but also through the promotion of local traditions and the increase of cultural activities.
Development Administration
Bihor County is in the process of modernizing and expanding its infrastructure. Road network development, airport modernization and transport network investments are just a few examples of increasing connectivity and accessibility.
“The projects that have been realized and are being realized in our county actually show the development vision of the county and the way in which the County Council understands to respond to the real needs of the people of Bihoren. When we came, we found some realities, and they needed to be solved. One of them, for example, was that on the national roads, in the cities or at the entrance and exit from Oradea, the people of Bihor lost tens of minutes of their lives during the hours of intense traffic. Our answer: significant investments in the road and belt network”, stated Mircea Mălan, the vice-president of the Bihor County Council.
The President of Bihor County Council, Ilie Bolojan, added: “An important thing was the network of new roads, not just the rehabilitation and modernization of old roads. Today we are working on over 65 kilometers of new roads, the belts in the metropolitan area of Oradea, the metropolitan ring and other projects. Another important project is the network of industrial parks, where work will begin in the next period. We have also managed to co-finance communal agricultural roads that lead to investments in agriculture. We had a first call for projects last year.”
Measures were taken to facilitate access to jobs and to prevent depopulation of rural areas. Projects such as industrial parks, the Dual Education Campus and the Science and Technology Park were designed to attract investment and generate well-paying jobs.
The priority was to attract European, private and governmental funds, because the local budget was not sufficient to finance the projects. Over the past four years, the share of investment in the total budget has increased significantly, from 26% in 2019 to 77% in 2023.
“Our objective was to manage the funds properly so that this administration could see all the projects through to completion. We have the smallest organizational chart, but the largest development budget among all county councils in the country. In these four years, we managed to reverse the share of operating expenses compared to those for development in the institution’s total budget. Only 15% of the budget for 2024 represents operating expenses“, emphasized Călin Gal, the vice-president of the Bihor County Council.
Administration through partnerships
In the 2020-2024 mandate, the county administration has developed solid partnerships with different institutions, with the aim of attracting funding for projects in several fields. Partnerships with town halls, with authorities from other counties, with central level institutions and with the private sector have brought important investments to Bihor county.
“The most important partnerships were with Oradea City Hall and the National Road Infrastructure Administration Company, because the effects of these partnerships were massive. With the City Hall, we have, for example, the metropolitan ring road – 17 kilometers of new road, the Hospital for infectious diseases, the network of passages, the Multifunctional Cultural Center and the support of flights from Oradea Airport. Some of the belts are the result of the partnership with CNAIR, as well as pedestrian crossings, road crossings or widening to four lanes. They are important projects for which we would not have had access to financing“, explained Ilie Bolojan, the president of the Bihor County Council.
Vice-President Mircea Mălan also mentioned the collaboration with the National Agency for Natural Protected Areas, through which Bihor county’s tourist potential is exploited and projects are carried out to preserve the surrounding environment. Campsites and recreational spaces are being set up for nature lovers in several mountain areas.
A multi-year program to support municipalities to introduce or expand gas networks is also underway.
Another important partnership is the one with the University of Oradea, to stimulate innovation and research and to support entrepreneurship.
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