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The empowerment of ministry leadership positions must cease, contests will be organised and "within months these things will be finalised", Interior Minister Lucian Bode told on Tuesday night private broadcaster B1 TV.
"I am aware that the greatest vulnerability of a public system is the human resource. If it is insufficient, if it is underperforming and if it has integrity problems, the collapse of that system is guaranteed," Bode said.
The minister maintained that he is determined to start organizing contests for the leadership positions in the Interior Ministry (MAI) structures.
"I will not be a spectator to what is happening in the MAI. I did not come to the head of this ministry to satisfy the need of a group or a person in the system. I assure you that I have come to get involved in everything that means to organize this ministry from top to bottom, because I wish that we have, as soon as possible, the leadership at the top of the ministry, secretaries of state, undersecretaries of state, and, together, we can eliminate one of the biggest problems facing the ministry in terms of its management, and that is, the issue of function-specific delegation. I am determined to start the hiring contests, to organize them in a way that is as transparent as possible," Lucian Bode said.
Asked when exactly the hiring contests would start, he replied that after the appointment of the secretaries of state in the ministry.
"The governing coalition will complete all negotiations at the latest next week, I believe, the secretaries of state will be appointed, they will be appointed and once the team is operational at the top of the MAI, we will put on the table a plan so that this practice ceases," the minister said.
He added: "I wish that in a few months these things be accomplished."
The minister said there was a major shortage of staff in the structures of the Ministry of Interior, showing that 30,000 people have left the system in the last five years.
"In these conditions, obviously the staff shortage is a major one on each branch," Bode stressed.
In his opinion, the equal sign should not be placed between the activity of an institution and the slippages of individuals.
"It is absolutely imperative to rebuild trust in the public systems in Romania. In order to be credible, the public order and public security ecosystem needs efficient management, it needs properly sized human resources and financial resources. I set out among the most important objectives to bring to the fore and to present to the public those who in a very large proportion do their duty to citizens, to the country. I have seen many times, in an absolutely incorrect way, there was an equal sign between a fundamental institution in terms of the functioning of the state, whether we are talking about the Police, the Gendarmerie or the fire brigade, and a slippage of one or the other," Bode said.
