Commission Report 2002 (Romania)

The executive

Several initiatives were taken to reform the executive and improve its functioning - the launching of a campaign of public administration reform, restructuring anti-corruption bodies, and the de-militarisation of the police. These reforms are welcome but are all at early stages of implementation and, to date, their impact has been limited. Considering the importance of these issues the accelerated implementation of the reform process should be considered as a priority. Decentralisation of responsibilities to local government was already well advanced and has continued. By way of contrast, there has been little progress in improving the policy making process and the continued reliance on ordinances as a legislative tool is a cause for concern.

Following the major re-organisation at the beginning of 2001, few changes were made to the organisation of the Executive. The composition of the Cabinet remained largely stable. A number of new government agencies were established - but of these only the National Council for Fighting Discrimination is directly linked to implementation of the acquis (see the section on Human rights and the protection of minorities).

The Executive`s practice of legislating through emergency ordinances, and to a lesser extent ``ordinary'' ordinances, has been strongly criticised by previous Regular Reports. These legislative instruments enter into force immediately and only need retrospective approval by the Parliament. This is a cause for concern since legislation can be adopted before adequate consultation has taken place (i.e. transparency is greatly reduced) and because Parliament`s power to subsequently amend or reject legislation introduced by ordinance can create legislative instability.

The use of ordinances has not substantially decreased over the reporting period. In 2001 and 2002, the majority of legislation dealt with by Parliament consisted of emergency and ordinary ordinances - i.e. executive legislation already in force. Parliament`s limited scrutiny capacity means that most ordinances are approved either without any amendments or with only minor changes. The use of these procedures remains a cause for concern and normal parliamentary procedures should be used in all but exceptional circumstances.

Important developments have taken place with regard to launching a reform of the Romanian public administration. The Prime Minister has established an inter-ministerial committee on administrative reform under his personal authority. A Central Unit for Public Administration Reform has been created within the Ministry of Public Administration and an inter-ministerial structure has been set up at the working level in order to develop reform proposals. Preparations are also underway to develop a ``fast track'' programme to recruit young professional managers to the Romanian civil service.

These initiatives, if sustained and supported by a clear strategy, could contribute significantly to improving the quality of Romania`s public administration. This said, the reform of the civil service is still only at the design stage and the administration remains characterised by excessive bureaucracy, a lack of transparency and a limited capacity for policy execution.

The 1999 organic law on civil servants includes provisions that, once properly applied, could lead to improved practices and performance. However, the law is not fully or uniformly applied. The Civil Service Agency has the responsibility for this task but its mandate is unclear and its influence over line ministries is weak.

A considerable amount of secondary legislation related to civil service reform has been passed. Issues covered include disciplinary committees, performance evaluation, probationary periods for new civil servants, the functioning of parity committees, and the management of recruitment exams. However, certain elements may need further revision before they can be effectively implemented. A further concern related to the legislative framework is that work to date has focussed on relatively minor issues while there has been little progress on fundamental issues such as remuneration, career structure and developing public accountability.

With regard to training of civil servants, Parliament approved the establishment of a National Institute for Administration. The Institute will be subordinated to the Ministry of Public Administration and will provide intensive training for new recruits as well as continuous training for existing civil servants. The Institute will also be responsible for managing a network of eight regional centres that will provide training for local officials and civil servants. It has been charged with preparing and implementing a national training strategy and will start training activities during the 2002/2003 academic year.

Human resource management is very limited and is essentially the responsibility of line ministries. There is no horizontal overview of the problems that exist and no strategic plan for addressing them. A reassessment of the allocation of human resources inside the central administration and a proper allocation of these to priority areas is badly needed. This could help reduce understaffing problems faced by several sectors of the civil service.

At the administrative level, policy co-ordination between ministries has further improved over the reporting period. The Government has demonstrated itself capable of effectively distributing responsibilities for major reforms between ministries - typically through the production of strategy papers or action plans. The production of this type of document has proved to be a feature of the government`s medium to long-term policy planning, particularly in the context of EU enlargement and when responding to external pressures. However, these plans are often not based on impact/needs assessments and in only a few cases are implementation and monitoring mechanisms established.

In certain specific cases inter-ministerial committees have been formed to allow a better co-ordination of policies with horizontal impact - for example, the integration of environmental policies into other sectoral policies.

The main instrument for policy co-ordination and inter-ministerial co-operation remains the weekly meetings of the Government. However, many decisions are reportedly made without following the normal internal procedures. This situation often results in hastily prepared legislation being adopted without adequate consultation and without a sufficient assessment of feasibility and impact. The consequent need for amendment is an additional factor that adds to legislative instability.

Consultation with stakeholders has improved over the reporting period but remains inadequate. The Economic and Social Council has been provided with increased opportunities to comment on legislative drafts, but the time available to comment is usually short which limits the effectiveness of the consultation procedure. A structured dialogue has been held with the business community on horizontal measures to regulate the business environment. However, little progress has been made in improving dialogue between business and the Government on specific regulations concerning particular sectors where consultation procedures remain inadequate. Intensive negotiations have been held with the trade unions which have enabled the Government to renew the ``social pact'' it has with them (but not with the employers` federations) on the implementation of its economic policy. NGOs have been actively consulted in certain cases, such as on the law concerning public access to information, as well as on various minority and child protection issues. However, these are exceptions and as a general rule NGOs are not involved in the policy dialogue.

The Ministry of European Integration is responsible for all issues related to EU accession. It has demonstrated itself capable of playing an effective co-ordinating function even though its capacity to deliver expert opinions on draft legislation remains limited. At the political level, the Inter-Ministerial Committee for European Integration has met during the reporting period - although both the level of representation and the frequency of meetings have been lower than originally foreseen. At a technical level, sectoral working groups have been organised and have met regularly. These bodies have been able to effectively prepare negotiation documents. However, they are not actively involved in assessing the feasibility of negotiation commitments or in monitoring their enforcement.

The process of decentralisation has continued over the reporting period with transfer of additional responsibilities to local authorities. Shifting responsibility to provide services has increasingly gone hand-in-hand with the decentralisation of political responsibilities and increased fiscal decentralisation. In this context it has been encouraging to note an improved capacity to assess and collect revenues from local taxes and fees.

Given the rapid pace of decentralisation, a major problem facing local administrations is that of limited management capacities to implement decentralised responsibilities. Systems for managing human resources are underdeveloped, training is limited and there has been a high turnover of local civil servants. Considerable efforts are still needed to improve financial management and to remedy shortages of IT equipment and IT skills.

Associations of local authorities have developed their role during the reporting period. These still tend to be politicised organisations. For the first time, central authorities have consistently consulted these associations on draft legislation with a significant impact at the local level.

With regard to the demilitarisation of the police, significant progress was made with the entering into force of a new Law on the Status of the Policeman in August 2002. This legislation explicitly stipulates that policemen are civilian public servants serving the rule of law. The law also passes the responsibility for dealing with crimes committed by policemen to civilian Prosecutors and Courts, makes it compulsory for policemen to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and calls for impartiality, non discrimination, proportionality, and gradualism by policemen when exercising their duty.

Other initiatives have been taken to support these legal developments. The use of conscription in the police is being phased out which has significantly improved the level of professionalism. While overall police training remains insufficient, the military component has been decreased and additional training has been provided on human rights issues. Some aspects of policing have been decentralised and pilot projects on community policing have been launched.

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