Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 19th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview PA Reform Author(s) Marius Profiroiu Bucharest University of Economic Studies Bucharest Romania Profiroiu Alina, Tudorel Andrei, Alina PROFIROIU Tudorel ANDREI Marius PROFIROIU Title Management of public administration reform in Romania - Distinctive features File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract The accession to the European Union forced Romania to start up a complex public administration reform process. For sustaining a reform process capable of implementing the requirements of the EU adhesion process, the Central Unit for Public Administration Reform was created (CUPAR) within the Ministry of Administration and Interior and also the National Modernizers Network (NMN), which is made of public servants working in ministries, prefectures and county councils. Our study aims at revealing the opinion of various employees which are part of the NMN, underlining several important issues related to public administration reform in Romania: • Analysis of strategic documents for supporting public administration reform process, adopted by Romanian governments during 2003-2010; • Analysis of statistical data provided by the National Institute of Statistics, which point out tendencies at the level of data series related to number of employees, public administration medium wage, etc.; • Exploring statistical data gathered after applying two statistical questionnaires: to public administration employees (examining the impact of reform on administrative capacity) and to representatives of the National Modernizers Network (examining the degree of their participation within the reform process). The most important features of the questionnaire administered to public administration employees are: • was administered on a representative sample made of 650 persons; • there were addressed questions related to public policy formulation process, civil service, expenses management system, public procurement, internal and external public audit. The most important features of the statistical research at the national modernizers network level are: • there were 71 respondents for NMN sample; • questions for assessing the NMN members` opinion regarding important aspects of the reform process were addressed; • starting from the survey questions several primary and aggregated questions have been defined. Statistical data has been processed using SPSS software, results being gathered using various statistical methods, resulting several quantitative and qualitative outputs related to public administration reform process. Among the most important conclusions of the present study, we mention: • In order to carry out public administration reform process using technical and financial support several specific structures have been created during 2002-2004; • Significant differences for one political cycle to another can be noticed in relation to the number of public administration employees evolution and their average salary; • The economic crisis which started in Romania at the end of 2008 tended to emphasize even more the imbalances within public administration, generated by incoherent policies and decisions; • An increase of the politization level within state institutions in general and public administration in particular can be noticed; • Reduced participation of modernizers in specific activities oriented towards supporting the reform process within the institutions they work for; • The use of quantitative and qualitative methods for studying PA phenomena is a difficult approach due to the lack of research and data series in this field. However, carrying out periodical research based on statistical surveys represent an important way of exploring the PA phenomena and a solid base for offering decision makers relevant information.
