Budget Adjustment in Romania
On Wednesday, the Romanian Government approved the first adjustment of the state budget and the social insurance budget for 2016.
Roxana Vasile, 11.08.2016, 12:39
On Wednesday, the Romanian Government
approved the first adjustment of the state budget and the social insurance
budget for 2016, in a bid to ensure the financial resources needed for the
implementation of the measures adopted by Parliament. The measures are aimed
mainly at ensuring the payment of welfare benefits, without however
jeopardizing the macroeconomic balance. Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has stated
that the budget adjustment is mainly aimed at funding public policies, even if
2016 is an election year in Romania.
Dacian Ciolos: Our goal is to finance the announced public policies, to meet real needs, not
to win votes to the detriment of effective budgeting.
The
main fields to benefit from the adjustment are health-care, education and
welfare. The health ministry will get an extra 125 million Euro to pay
increased salaries for the medical staff. Also, additional amounts will be used
to fund health-care programs and to ensure subsidized medicines. One priority
in the field is to combat hospital-acquired infections, said the Ministry of Health
Vlad Voiculescu.
Vlad Voiculescu: 4.6 million lei was added to the budget’s program, to cover interventions such
as active testing, screening for all patients newly admitted in intensive care
units, for all the patients who need intensive care for more than seven days
and also for all the patients hospitalized in the same ward as a person known
to suffer from a hospital-acquired infection. Also, we have a budget for
professional training on hospital-acquired infections and the careful use of
antibiotics.
In
education, the allocated amount, standing at some 220 million Euro, is used as
of August 1st to cover the increased salaries of the teaching
staff in higher-secondary and
tertiary education. Programs for students are also envisaged. Here is the
Education Minister Mircea Dumitru with more:
For the first time, the
Education Ministry will ensure free school-books for students in the 11th
and 12th grades. This entails the spending of some 32 million lei
for 3.6 new school books.
The
Labour Ministry will get some 620 million Euro for welfare benefits. Half of
the amount is to be allocated for child-rearing benefits, allowances for
children and people with disabilities and other forms of welfare. The other
half will cover pensions until the end of the year. Also, the budget adjustment
earmarked money for this fall’s parliamentary elections, but also for
agriculture, environment, defense and transportation.
