DevMin Cseke Attila: Administrative reform package addresses local authorities' challenges and fixes inconsistencies

The measures regarding the administrative reform, included in the second package, respond to local authorities' challenges and needs, in the context of 2025 and will solve some inconsistencies, both past and ongoing, in administrative procedures, Minister of Development, Public Works and Administration Cseke Attila told AGERPRES.

Minister Cseke Attila announced that in a few days, this draft law shall be submitted to the decision-making transparency process, adding that, work is currently underway to complete the measures, including following a new round of debates held on Tuesday with the Association of Municipalities in Romania (AMR), which was attended by Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, Vice Prime Minister Tanczos Barna and Minister of Labour, Family, Youth and Social Solidarity Florin Manole.

"The moment we have completed this draft, it will enter public consultation. (...) I believe that these discussions which extended over several weeks, were welcomed and shown the Government's openness to dialogue, obviously, in the sense of finding the best solutions, together with local authorities, in the current economic and financial context, while also providing additional levers, including financially, to local authorities. Our conclusion is that this package will address the challenges and needs of local authorities in the context of 2025, resolve certain inconsistencies, past and ongoing, in terms of administrative procedures, help local authorities to increase their financial capacity and have an efficient structure in terms of personnel," the development minister underscored.

He mentioned that this package of administrative measures is made up of three large parts.

A first part is related to the decentralization and the transfer of decisions and relevant duties to local public administration authorities, including decentralizing the decision-making on the possible organization of gambling activities at the level of local authorities, which are currently excluded from this authorization.

"The second part is related to a significant increase in the financial capacity of local public administration authorities, where measures will be proposed to ensure that revenues are directed to local authorities, creating mechanisms through which the Romanian state enables a much larger share of these revenues to reach local authorities. Thus, ensuring the financial capacity of local authorities is the second part, which includes the possibility of withholding funds at the source from other Romanian state revenues if a person fails to pay their local taxes and fees, with the obligation that all dues to the local community must be paid in order to obtain a building permit or to purchase a property or a vehicle. All of this aligns with the principle of fairness and social justice, because not only some Romanian citizens should pay taxes and duties or observe the laws and we must make sure that those who have so far not fulfilled these obligations also comply and observe the laws in force," the development minister added.

The third part of the package of measures regarding local public administration, which focuses to improve efficiency, includes some measures, with some of them also being implemented to central public administration and they relate to streamlining activities regarding the total number of positions that can be established at the level of local public authority or administration. The measure to reduce the number of positions by 20pct, included in this chapter, could simply involve removing some vacant positions, the minister mentioned.

Moreover, the development minister also said that the package proposes measures to reduce the number of local police officers authorized to operate within the administrative-territorial unit.

According to the minister, a significant reduction in positions in both local and central administration regards the offices of local elected officials and the offices of central-level dignitaries.

An important point regards the possibility of ensuring specialized competences and responsibilities by allowing public positions to be held on a part-time basis, not only full-time, which will enable smaller communities to fill specialized public positions across multiple local authorities.

According to him, an important measure is the proposal to transfer personal assistants of people with disabilities from local authorities to the Ministry of Labour.

He also mentioned the possibility that the support structures at the level of main credit authorizing officers could fully or partially take over, starting January 1, 2026, the activities of certain support structures under the subordination, coordination or authority of the main credit authorizing officer.