The Foundation For The Defense Of The Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) has requested information from Romanian municipalities concerning the amounts they pay monthly for security services and has compiled a top list of them. The centralized data shows that in many cases the monthly expenses reach hundreds of thousands of lei, defying the austerity measures imposed by the government on Romanians.
The first three positions in the ranking are occupied by Constanța City Hall, Arad City Hall and Bucharest City Hall.
Constanța City Hall allocates record amounts for security services, compared to other city halls in the country, spending about 768,000 lei per month for security services. This is almost 40% more than the amount spent by Bucharest City Hall for the same type of services.
In second place is the City Hall of Arad, with expenses of about 700,000 lei per month, justified by 32 guard posts provided by private companies. In relation to this cost, the guard at the entrance to the city hall should receive a salary of about 22,000 lei gross per month.
Bucharest City Hall ranks third in the ranking, with a monthly allocation of about 444,000 lei for security services.
At the top of the FACIAS ranking are also Drobeta Turnu Severin City Hall, which spends about 350,000 lei per month, Alba Iulia City Hall, with about 311,000 lei per month, Târgoviște City Hall, with about 200,000 lei per month, and Târgu Mureș City Hall, which allocates about 150,000 lei per month.
Data obtained by FACIAS indicates that these amounts represent recurrent expenditure in local budgets, without the authorities having analyzed more cost-effective alternatives. In total, only 7 town halls in the country spend more than 35,000,000 lei (about 7 million euro) annually from the public budget on security.
The implementation of modern digital solutions, such as video monitoring systems integrated into a centralized dispatcher could significantly reduce these costs. Estimates show that such a model could cut costs by up to 60% compared to the current system, which is mainly based on traditional guarding.
At the same time, many other town halls across the country have told FACIAS that security services are provided exclusively by local police officers. This approach has allowed local authorities to avoid wasting public money on contracts with private security firms.