Bill on salary payment to public servants can lead to cuts in pays, CAPC

The new law on the remuneration for public servants proposed by the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family can lead to reductions in salaries, consider experts of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC), which examined the corruptibility of the bill, Info-Prim Neo reports. Expert Viorel Pirvan told a news conference on Friday that the bill aims to remove the drawbacks existing in the remuneration system by instituting a new system for paying salaries to civil servants, which will be reasonable, equitable and coherent. According to him, though the bill says the new system will stimulate the highly-qualified and responsible specialists and motivate them to work in the public service, the situation is different. Practically all the bonuses that are currently paid to public servants are removed from the system. “These bonuses to the salary are won rights and rights instituted by law and a subsequent law cannot exclude them. The Constitutional Court pronounced on the issue by a series of decisions, saying a won right cannot be removed by a subsequent law,” said Viorel Pirvan, adding the bill is not sufficiently justified from economic and financial viewpoints. CAPC head Galina Bostan said the authors argue the provision about the length of service is eliminated because they want to encourage the young people to work in the public service. “It is a good argument, but let’s see how many free posts are in ministries,” she suggested. According to Galina Bostan, if this bill is passed in second reading without amendment, the salaries may be decreased. The public servants will not be motivated to work as their salaries will not rise. The increase in corruptibility may be another consequence. The salary of a public servant with all the bonuses and benefits is about 3,000 lei. The bill on the remuneration for public servants was adopted by Parliament in first reading. The CAPC performed the examination of the bill within the project “Corruptibility Expert Review of Normative and Legislative Acts – stage V”, which is financially supported by the Civil Rights Defenders of Sweden and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.