The reform of local public administration could require between 4.5 and 5 billion lei, depending on the number of town halls that will participate in the voluntary amalgamation process. The Government’s initial estimate, calculated for the scenario in which all town halls would adhere to the reform, was approximately 6.5 billion lei.

The Deputy Secretary General of the Government, Alexandru Iacub, stated in an interview for IPN that the funds are provided in the Growth Plan for the development of the administration and the implementation of the reform and will be approved along with the legislative package.

“Money is allocated when there is a predictability of budget execution. The moment we have the number of municipalities eligible for this incentive, then we allocate this amount and provide for it in the budget,” the official explained.

At present, the authorities are providing the first incentive for initiating the voluntary amalgamation process. Over 10 million lei have already been allocated to the town halls for this stage, and the number of requests is increasing.

For the first stimulus, the Government has allocated 170 million lei in this year’s budget. Part of the amount will be returned to the state budget through budget adjustment, as it was not fully utilized.

Disclaimer: This material was prepared by the IPN Press Agency, within the project “Local Public Administration Reform in Dialogue”, funded by the Ministry of Culture from the Media Subsidy Fund.