The war between the two PNL leadership candidates, Florin Cîţu (prime minister) and Ludovic Orban (president of the Chamber of Deputies) has gone from attacks related to party life to reproaches for sabotaging the government. Thus, according to the leader of Victoria Palace, Orban is responsible for the fact that the PNL has not started the great promised reforms or some are in their early stages, but their implementation is delayed. “I lost to the right-wing electorate. I said we were reforming the public administration, but I was not afraid that we would lose the election. I didn’t do the salary reform either. We did not reform the state companies, also for fear that we will lose the election “, Cîţu declared in front of the liberals from Sector 2, on the occasion of the elections in this organization.
But what the prime minister omitted, or wanted to forget, is the fact that he was one of the brakes on reforms, if we analyze chronologically his activity, since taking office as Minister of Finance in October 2019, then as Prime Minister, in December 2020. For example, the first discussions on public administration reform and public sector salaries were in January 2020, when he stated that solidarity in terms of revenue cuts should be borne by all Romanians, including public servants. Then, Florin Cîţu twisted. There was no decrease in revenues and no restructuring of the budgetary apparatus was targeted.
The prime minister did not show signs of wanting a reform of the public administration, despite the fact that it becomes necessary due to the problems faced by some local communities, even after he became head of government. Cîţu acknowledged the scale of the problem facing more than a thousand town halls, but is waiting for its own solution. “There are 1,250 administrative-territorial units in Romania whose salary expenses are higher than their own revenues or even total revenues. We clearly have a problem. I can tell you that we are looking and we have seen Mr. Boc’s proposal regarding the administrative reorganization. I would like to do it somehow, to create the motivation to do it naturally, that is to create projects around which these administrative-territorial units should unite “, said Florin Cîţu, during a meeting with the local authorities from Alba, in the middle of the month June. The figure announced by Cîţu, related to the total number of localities, represents about 41% of the town halls in the country. In fact, according to an analysis of “Adevărul”, out of the approximately 3,100 administrative-territorial units (ATU), ie cities and communes, 89 ATUs have less than a thousand inhabitants, according to the data from the last census, the one from 2011.
Abandoning the theme of sinecures
The issue of reducing the number of sinecures in state-owned companies was among the objectives delayed by the Cîţu Government, although the subject was opened by the prime minister, not by another member of the Coalition. The Prime Minister announced in June, after almost three months since he promised to adopt an emergency ordinance to reduce the number of positions in the boards of directors (CA) or oversight (SC) of state institutions, that the matter will be decided by Parliament , although in March the respective GEO “was waiting for a few more opinions”. Because the Executive had assumed that it would solve the problem of reducing the number of sinecures in companies, the liberal bill is hidden in the drawers of the specialized commissions since the coming to power of the first PNL government, the Orban Government. Meanwhile, the reform of state-owned companies has also been undertaken through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, so it should resolve the situation by 2022, if the rulers do not want to have problems attracting European money.
Cutting bonuses, from 2022
The government led by Florin Cîţu also deflated on the subject of the salary reform, by cutting the bonuses. After intense discussions on the Government’s amendment to the Remuneration Law in January and early February, and an analysis was made on the subject, and the Executive was prepared to cut budget increases, the Coalition backed down. So the discussion about bonuses and salary reform has been postponed until the fall of 2021, so that the possible effects can be felt from 2022.
Another issue related to income was the one regarding the law that forbids the accumulation of pension-salary from the state. The government kept the bill in place for nearly four months, before adopting it and sending it to parliament in mid-June. As Parliament has already gone on holiday and the regular session will resume in September, the bill could be passed, if there is political will and no more obstacles, this autumn.
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