Traian Băsescu, on the reduction of the number of state employees: “There is no reform of the administration”. The increase that he would like removed from the budgets

Former president Traian Băsescu declared, on TVR Info, that reducing the number of state employees does not represent a true reform of the administration, which can only be achieved by merging the counties. At the same time, Băsescu said that the 50% increase for work on European projects granted in the administration should be eliminated.

“There is no reform of the administration, the reduction of personnel. This is an optimization of expenses. The administrative reform means the merging of counties, regionalization, and regionalization can be done without any constitutional amendment. It is enough for that region formed by 4, 5, 6 counties to call it a county. Because that is the administrative unit in the Constitution: county. Also, you cannot leave communities that cannot support themselves indefinitely. They must be merged, in this way so that they have income to pay the salary of the mayor, the salary of the councilors, the salary of the mayor's staff. So that would mean reform. The rest is a story, said Traian Băsescu, to TVR Info.

He also referred to “the so-called reform of the central apparatus, we reduce the 10%”.

“First of all, they will not reduce. I wonder how we reduce 15% or 10% in the local administration, given that a town hall has decentralized services or created companies, some of which have been privatized and are in contract with the town hall, and others have kept the services inside the town hall. So, one has 1000 employees because it has the services internally, another has 120 employees, because it has outsourced the services. How do you reduce 10% in the conditions these?”, stated Traian Băsescu.

The former president showed that “the approach is annoyingly naive or a trick.”

Also, Băsescu said that it is not justified to grant the 50% increase for working with European funds, given that President Nicușor Dan himself invited the business environment to do projects because the state does not have the administrative capacity.

“I would draw a conclusion regarding the call made by the president of Romania to the business community to make projects, because Romania has no administrative capacity. My reaction, if I were prime minister, would be to immediately cut the 50% increase in the salaries of those who claim to work with European funds”, Băsescu also said.