Budget Rectification

On Tuesday the Romanian Government will make the 2nd budget rectification in 2014.

România Internațional, 29.09.2014, 13:23

The Romanian Government will approve, on Tuesday, the 2nd budget rectification in 2014, which, all in all, is a positive one, just like the one operated in summer. However, some institutions and ministries will have their funds cut. According to the draft emergency ordinance on the state budget rectification posted on the site of the Finance Ministry, the Labor Ministry will receive most of the money, namely 1.2 billion lei for the payment of salaries and social services. The Ministry of Regional Development will receive additional funds worth almost 600 million lei while the Interior Ministry will get 250 million lei.

Also the budgets of the Public Administration, Defense and Justice Ministries will be increased. The Foreign Ministry will benefit from additional funds worth 96 million lei for the functioning of diplomatic missions as well as for its development assistance programs. Additional amounts of money will also go to the Senate, the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the Ombudsman and the special services. In exchange, the Government will reduce the state budget expenses by almost 4 billion lei, through which projects benefiting from post-accession non-reimbursable external funds are co-financed. Of this sum, more than one billion lei accounts for cuts in the budget of the Government’s General Secretariat, which manages, through the Department for Infrastructure and Foreign Investments Projects, big infrastructure projects, mainly the building of highways.

The Finance and Agriculture Ministries will lose in turn one billion lei, and the Healthcare Ministry will be deprived of almost 300 million lei. Nevertheless, the government will allot about 120 million lei to national healthcare programs related to HIV, oncology and TB, for the payment of salaries to the staff of hospitals under the authority of the local public administration, for ambulance services, the rehabilitation of maternities, the funding of after-hours medical centers, and for EBOLA prevention measures.

Smaller sums of money will be cut from the Presidential Administration, the Romanian Academy, the Education, Sports and Culture Ministries. Under the 2nd budget rectification local authorities will receive more than 1.16 billion lei plus one billion lei through the Local Development National Program. The opposition claims that the money received by mayors has an electoral connotation, given the upcoming November presidential election.