Chairman of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) Kelemen Hunor believes that multiple options can be discussed for the administrative reform, but for the future, as there are current other urgencies, namely reducing expenses and increasing revenues.
„There are two approaches, perhaps a third one. One of the approaches is to effectively reduce the number of employees, occupied positions by 10 percent. That means around 13,000 positions. And the second approach is cutting expenses. (…) I am talking about the actually occupied positions, 10 percent – it is the desideratum we talked about. (…) Another approach – cut expenses by 10 percent, but this is not okay either, because there are no identical situations in the administrative-territorial units. (…) Or, a third option is to reduce, not by 10 percent, by 7 percent, by 8 percent and adjust the rest from reduced expenses. You’ll reach the same result, but probably if one has to seek a compromise, there is always a compromise,” Kelemen Hunor told Euronews Romania private television station on Monday evening.
He added that only the two options were discussed in the coalition: „The cut by 10 percent, this is supported by the PNL [the National Liberal Party] and by me, and the reduction of expenses supported by the PSD [the Social Democratic Party] and the USR [the Save Romania Union], especially since Dominic Fritz is a mayor in a large city and would like a little bit more freedom.”
When asked if the merger of the administrative-territorial units (UAT) had ever been considered, Kelemen Hunor responded: „There is no such thing in the governing programme. Discussions were carried out constantly, for years, at least since Cozmanca’s time, because the first draft that I saw was between 2000 and 2004 when Octav Cozmanca prepared such a reform, that draft was picked up several times with different versions. (…) But this discussion has been around for a very long time. We don’t have anything like that in the governing programme. Of course, it can be approached, but, again, it would have to be in a very, very balanced manner, because there are some geographical areas where a merger wouldn’t be a big issue, as the localities, villages and communes are already very close together, packed in.”
The UDMR leader mentioned that, at some point, there was a discussion about merging certain services, but the Ministry of Finance did not accept it and underscored that any administrative reform is meant for the future.
„Several administrative-territorial units could share an accounting service, a procurement service, an audit service, there is no need to have two people doing audits in every UAT, but at the time, the Ministry of Finance did not accept it, saying there must be two, no matter how small the locality. Thus, there have been many discussions, it can be talked about, but right now, we are racing against the clock. So, we must reduce expenses, we must increase revenues, because we have a huge gap in the budget. Any merger, any administrative reform is for the future, for the distant future, because until 2028 you couldn’t even solve it, as the people were already elected, and it wouldn’t stand in terms of the constitution. Therefore, these matters can be discussed, but today we have other objectives and urgencies,” the UDMR chairman conveyed. AGERPRES
