Approximately 1.3 million Romanians work for the state. In recent years, the organizational chart has been growing. The problem does not refer to well-trained people, to the professionals absolutely necessary in a state, but to those who occupy positions based on a single criterion: belonging to a party that is “on the buttons”.
According to data published by the Ministry of Finance (MF) this year, 64% of state employees are in the central public administration. In total, there are 5.7 million employees in Romania. Thus, 1.3 million of those employed by the state represent almost a quarter of the total of those in our country.
The PSD+PNL government has not uttered a single word in three years of government about the surplus of state employees. Thus, Romania remains the country in the European Union with the most budgets, compared to the entire population. Economic analyst Adrian Negrescu commented on this topic for Ziare.com.
“In an election year, it’s mission impossible to talk about the public sector staffing scheme, since you have two million people, maybe even more, that you depend on in one way or another. There are around 1.3 million public servants, but we also have to include their families, so that more than two million people depend on the public system, and politicians are aware that their vote matters.
The problem is not necessarily how many people should work in the state, but “what needs do we have?” and “how do we make the system more efficient first?”. We see what needs we have in health, in education, in public administration, in the defense system. Then we make a decision. If we judge by the numbers, we look at Poland, a country with twice the population of Romania, it has 800,000 budget workers. We are in the first place in Europe in terms of the number of budget holders in relation to the population, and this burdens the state’s expenses in one way or another”, said the Frames consultant.
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The budgetary burden is getting bigger and biggerwarns Adrian Negrescu.
“Unfortunately, in the conditions in which the expenses with the salaries of budget workers continue to increase from year to year, of course, investments are also affected. Here is the key: what do we want to do for the future? Investments or to pay people? I think investments should be in the foreground. In the coming years, most of the European funds will disappear for Romania”, commented Negrescu.
When really important steps are taken in the digitization process, then the government will have to reduce the staff who “cut leaves to dogs”.
“We must learn from the example of other countries. Even the Republic of Moldova is better in terms of digitization than Romania. Succeeding through a mobile phone application to offer citizens all public services, from issuing identity documents, applications, permits, is an essential mission from the point of view of the modernization of the Romanian state. When we will have the Romanian state on our own mobile phone, then, certainly, the number of employees in the background should not be as high either. But let’s not forget, although in our country the file with a rail is prohibited, in the future, including at ANAF, a file with a rail is brought,” the analyst specified.
In addition to a strict analysis related to how many people are needed in the budget system, in addition to substantial investments in digitization, Romania needs a professional training program for the workforce without many prospects, Negrescu emphasized.
“We also need a career strategy for these people, a reprofessionalization program. There are at least 500,000 people from the public system who should migrate to the private sector. Are they ready to take that step? Am I professionally prepared enough to handle the performance demands of the private system? There are big question marks.
We have a lot of people in the state system who “rub the mint”, who “cut leaves for the dogs”, good at moving papers, but who do not have anything concrete to ensure their chances of a job in the private sector. That is why these people need to be retrained. You can’t throw them out until you find them some reprofessionalization solutions, some solutions to ensure an income, from this perspective. ANOFM offers free professional qualification programs for some jobs that are not related to the labor market: from bodyguards to maids and human resources inspectors, jobs that I don’t think are so necessary, given the conditions the private sector complains about the lack of plumbers, electricians, drivers, agricultural workers, etc
Until we have a new free national program (in private it exists, but it costs), retraining the labor force, adapted to the needs of the market, we will not succeed in adapting our labor force to the new realities and determining people to leave the minimum wage area”, concluded Adrian Negrescu, for Newspapers.com.
“The Romanian state could function very easily without a third of its employees”
Claudiu Năsui, USR deputy, former Minister of the Economy, recalls that, since the “enthronement” of Marcel Ciolacu as prime minister, taxes have increased, as well as the number of employees in his entourage.
“There is money in the budget, but this is not capitalism. It is a socialism in which the upper class does everything it wants for you and for the environment. Much more money is given to health and education, but the quality of services continues to decline, for a population that continues to decline.
The workforce is very poorly distributed. There are hospitals, state clinics where there are an army of people who have too few patients. Overall, the state does not need more people. At the SGG (General Secretariat of the Government), since Mr. Ciolacu came to the Government, the number of employees has been increased by about 400 over what they were before. The Romanian state could very easily function with two thirds of what it has now.
For example, the National Agency for Equal Opportunities, the Agency for Human Rights may be abolished. They sound pompous, but they do nothing. They’re hired helpers. As a rule, a president who shook his elbows who hired 30 people, each with a car and all the luxury, with public money. Also look at the Levant Institute, led by Emil Constantinescu. He also makes a photo album. Another million lei are going. The abolition of this institution was wanted, but it did not receive the support of the majority. We at USR supported this measure. An entire list of agencies must be abolished, not just one,” commented the former minister, for Ziare.com.
PSD+PNL would have “installed” four times more secretaries of state than would have been necessary
Dan Tănăsă, AUR spokesman, proposes several solutions to solve the problem – the surplus of personnel, installed in key positions strictly based on the party card:
“We must make public administration more efficient and capitalize on national wealth. We will implement a measure voted by all Romanians: 300 parliamentarians. This is how the Romanians voted, this is how it should be. Also, a lean and efficient government! A maximum of 12 ministries and a maximum of 50 secretaries of state.
At present, most of the 200 or so secretaries of state have no duties. They just have a big office, a secretary and a few advisers, a car with a driver and that’s it. They do not produce surplus value for Romanians.
We can unify the localities. AUR launched the governance program at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania. The reason was not accidental. The CCIR came with a proposal to us for territorial unification, for administrative efficiency, a proposal that largely corresponds to our vision and which can be found in this government program. No locality will have a town hall in Romania if it does not have at least 5,000 inhabitants. AUR proposes that instead of the former town halls, for each locality with more than 1,000 people, a computerized office to work with the citizens should be maintained.
We are drastically reducing the number of party members in local and central public administration. There is no need for nearly 500,000 party members in local and central government. We started, from the beginning of the 2000s, with 800,000 employees in the state and we have reached in this government, which aims to make the spending of public money more efficient, to have more than 1,340,000 employees in the state.
We don’t mind state employees and professionals. On the contrary, we must encourage them. We need a hierarchy of competences at the level of the Romanian state”, said the deputy, for Ziare.com.
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