The Foundation For The Defense Of Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) started at the end of last year a process of monitoring the government against its promises and actual work. In December 2020, when taking over office, the current government promised major reforms in key areas such as Education and Health, as well as a number of legislative changes or the massive attraction of European funds.
As part of this monitoring project, FACIAS identified a number of "failed" targets set by the government programme.
Thus, among the most important promises related to education are those concerning the solution of the situation of educational establishments that have toilets in the yard and are not connected to the water and sewage networks, as well as facilitating the access of all children to nurseries, kindergartens and schools by building and restoring more than 2,500 educational establishments. No concrete action has been taken on either of these objectives.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection had set a target to increase child support from July this year, but the target was missed and the increase postponed to next year. The implementation of the minimum inclusion income, which was due in mid-2021, has also been postponed to 2022.
The recalculation of pensions and the resolution of inequalities in the public pension system, with the assumed deadline of summer 2021, has been postponed to 2023. A realistic estimate is that the first recalculated pensions could be paid out from 2024 at the earliest. Also in the area of pensions, the pension point increase planned for this year has been postponed to 2022.
The Ministry of Labour has also suspended the development of the National Information System for Social Assistance (SNIAS), with the authorities responding to FACIAS's request that a new deadline for this project will be brought forward after the approval of the PNRR.
The Ministry of Health has proposed, among other things, to take measures to prevent fires in hospitals, to develop several types of health insurance or to develop the National Health Strategy 2021 - 2024. All these objectives have been missed so far. In the case of fire prevention, we are in a situation where 310 hospitals with beds have a fire permit (April 2021), out of a total of 1400 units.
The most important objective of the Romanian Government, one of particular significance for Romania, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, is unfortunately the most "resounding" failure of the current government. FACIAS has reported on several occasions on the failures in the drafting of the NRRP, the final form of which was due to be presented at the end of April. At the end of July we are in a situation where the NRRP has not been approved, although 16 European countries have so far received approvals.
Last but not least, FACIAS would like to draw attention to the alarming increase in Romania's public debt, which reached 49.7% of GDP in May this year. The accelerated increase in Romania's indebtedness in recent months could have disastrous effects on the country's economy, putting Romania in an inferior position vis-à-vis international creditors and foreign financial markets.