Romanians Associate Public Institutions With Bureaucracy, Corruption - Report

The evaluation relied on a sociologic inquiry applied in 15 institutions and public authorities in the counties Cluj, Mehedinti, Tulcea, Vaslui and capital city Bucharest, between March and April 2009, with a sample of over 1,000 people.

Over 60% of the respondents associate local institutions with bureaucracy, 49% associate them with corruption, and 40 to 55% of Romanians believe public servants do not observe the proper conduct when they interact with citizens.

Respondents are dissatisfied with the manner in which decisions are taken, the lack of transparency and ways of consultation, while half the respondents said they were pleased with how they interact with local authorities.

The most tolerant attitude towards the public servants belongs to people aged under 44.

The authors of the report consider that perspectives on quality of services offered by local public authorities and institutions are more stable and well-formed compared to the expectations, perhaps due to the numerous polls on the subject and the standard answers given by the respondents.

Citizens in Cluj, northwestern Romania, and in Tulcea, southeastern Romania, can interact better with local public institutions and do not have any other expectations.

These institutions have adapted their work hours to meet the needs of locals who have to travel long distances to get to the institutions.

Over 60% of the respondents said they resorted to the services of the local public institutions once or not many times, but their perception remains negative.

The report concludes that Romanians are interested in solutions to their problems and in the quality of the service rather than the way the institutions render their efficiency in supplying services.

A possible solution would be to turn the satisfaction of the citizen into an index to measure the performance of the administration, in order to uphold reform in the public sector.

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