Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan stated on Monday in respect to the local public administration reform that, from his point of view, the discussion at the Cotroceni with President Nicusor Dan and the coalition party leaders was about cutting the number of employees by 10 percent.

„In the governing programme there is a clear provision which stipulates a cut of the public administration personnel, I believe it is 20 percent. People are not numbers, but there are some assessments based on some realities. If we have a county council which has 90 employees, such as the Bihor County Council, it means that other county councils can have perhaps 120 employees, 150 employees, but not 200 or 250, because, if a county is working well with a small number of employees, it means that other counties can operate with fewer employees than they have today, so that we do not waste the money we collect with difficulty from the citizens and which everyone rightly protests against when a new tax, an extra excise or an added health contribution appears,” Bolojan stated at TVR info, when asked whether the agreement at Cotroceni was a 10 percent cut in personnel spending, as the Social Democratic Party (PSD) argues or a 10 percent cut in the number of employees in local administration.

From his point of view, structural measures must be taken and personnel expenses are part of the reform measures because a reform means a more efficient administration and there is no way „to escape” personnel cuts.

„I believe that following the discussion I had both in the coalition and at the meeting with Mr President, those who were present understood what were the conclusions. From my point of view, the others should also be asked, because if several people understand the same thing, that becomes the general understanding, the discussion was as clear as it could be, we need to reduce personnel expenses, and that can only be done either by cutting salaries or bonuses, or by reducing the number of employees. And in the discussion we had, it was about cutting the number of employees by 10 percent,” Bolojan added.

On September 2, President Nicusor Dan met at the Cotroceni Palace with leaders of the governing coalition to discuss the reform of local public administration.

PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu said after the meeting that Social Democrats are in favor of a „real” reform in the local public administration, not layoffs, emphasizing that his party’s proposal is a 25 percent reduction in filled positions, but phased in with assessments every six months.

„We believe (…) that the local administration reform must be done smartly, not with an axe. The PSD fully supports the commitment to a real reform of local public administration, but reform, not layoffs. These are two completely different things,” Grindeanu said. He acknowledged that reform may also include layoffs, but underscored that the reform cannot be reduced to layoffs alone.

AGERPRES