Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 19th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Civil Service Author(s) Cristina Mihaela Constantinescu National Agency of Civil Servants Bucharest Romania Circiumaru Adriana, Adriana Circiumaru Title Transparency and participation in public administration File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract Transparency and participation in public administration was a project financed by the European Union through the PHARE 2005 - Strengthening Democracy in Romania. The purpose of the project was to increase the role of civil society in promoting the principles of a good governance and participation of citizens in the decision-making process at local level. The main activities concerned the implementation of the C.L.E.A.R. model in Romania as a tool for evaluating the institutional transparency and the level of citizens’ involvement in public life and also for organizing a coherent set of informational activities for citizens regarding the most efficient forms of participating in the decision-making process at local level and promoting successful models of involving citizens in the act of local governing. The project was developed in two main directions: conducting pilot projects of experimental implementation of the C.L.E.A.R. model introduced by the Council of Europe‘s in 18 public institutions in Romania and organizing activities of informing the citizens about the most effective forms of participation in public life and also of promoting success cases in involving people into the local government process. The C.L.E.A.R. tool is based on the premises that citizens will participate more efficiently when they: Can do – that is, have the resources and knowledge to participate; Like to – that is, have a sense of attachment to their community, the level of trust is high; are Enabled to – that is, are provided with the opportunity of participation; there are various associative structures of citizens; are Asked to – that is, are mobilized by official bodies or voluntary groups; are Responded to – that is, they see evidence that their views have been considered. The project was implemented in 2008 within four Romanian counties and in the capital city, Bucharest, involving: citizens, civil servants, representatives of NGOs, 18 public institutions from these four counties and Bucharest (city hall, town halls, communalities halls, country councils and prefect’s institutions) and the mass-media (around 160.000 persons, direct and indirect beneficiaries). For the implementation of C.L.E.A.R. the selected volunteers - the representatives of civil society - were trained and involved in the organizing of the campaign for raising the awareness of the citizens in the 5 locations involved the project. The awareness campaign at national level was sustained throughout all period of project’s implementation, through radio broadcasts, in partnership with the Romanian Radio Company. As it resulted from the answers of the public institutions involved in the project, the voter turnout is not very high, the lowest level being registered in Bucharest, the city with the biggest number of inhabitants and the most developed from an economical point of view. Highest levels of participation in the electoral process were registered in the poorer counties. Also, the elderly people go to vote in a much higher percentage than the young people. From the civil servants’ view, the main elements contributing to a low involvement of citizens are the latter’s lack of time and as well the belief that their opinions aren’t taken into account by the representatives of the local authorities (two quarters of the respondents). Also, the level of trust of the other members of the community is rather medium to low, in this respect the civil servants being more pessimist than the citizens (23% of the civil servants pointed out a low level of trust, up against the 15% percentage pointed out by the citizens).
