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Rantrua: Some WB proposals to be included in the discussions with EC and IMF

Some of the recommendations of WB, such as the reform in administration will be included in the discussions with the EC and the IMF but they are not conditions for the moment, but only evaluations and guidances for the government which is going to decide if they are to be applied or not, Francois Rantrua, country manager of WB for Romania said.

' The latest report is not a critical one at the address of the government. We do not condition, we recommend out of our experience what should be done' the country manager of the WB said in a discussion with the press.

He added that the report was made at the request of the government and represents a kind of audit, as part of the agreement between the government and the World Bank, this being the reason for which it cannot be made public. Asked if these recommendations would represent conditions in the discussions for a new agreement, Rantrua said that it is too early to give an answer to that question but the World Bank 'would be happy' to be part of a new agreement with IMF and the European Commission.

The Gandul newspaper said that in the latest report of the World Bank Romania was finished, the country with a budget made by ear, politically guided, and with a finance ministry with more employees than in the UK. Romania has a budget with income and expenditure which cannot exist, the least absorption of European funds amongh European countries, a fiscal administration which increases the collecting costs and which should be replaced with an IT system and call-centres, is all shown in the functional evaluation made by the World Bank in the public financial system, in such institutions as the finances ministry and ANAF.

According to the World Bank the state companies should be checked directly by the finances ministry in a new agency or department under the supervision of the ministry.

The World Bank proposes as solutions collective agreements from credits owners with regards to the observance of ceilings established in the budget, correlated with the government's priorities, the ministry of finances to have the right to adjust the expenditure budgets proposed by ministries if they exceed the ceilings, and all laws passed during the year with significant impact on the state budget to continue to contain the analysis of the imapct made by the finances ministry.

At the same time, the Fiscal council should be authorised to publish separate estimates on the fiscal impact on some laws, if the fiscal neutrality is impeached, and the ministries should justify their new initiatives and come with solutions for co-financing out of their own resources.

The World Bank recommends periodical evaluations of expenditure for all credit payers, such as the modernisation of services through the automation and computerisation of accounting systems and and payment systems.

In another report,regarding agriculture, WB said that deficit in operational management represents the main problem of agricultural administration and rural development in Romania, more severe than any other restriction of budgetary domain.

WB observes the institutional fragmentation in the Romanian agriculture and the division of activities, the complexity of structures and the weak quality of delegation and communication. Thus, the institution recommends the joining of Agency for Payments and Investments in Agriculture and the Agency for Payments for Rural development and fishery, a project which should be finalised before 2014.

Agricultre and transport, domains to need reform and investment

The agriculture and the transports are the domains which really need reforms and investments, Francois Rantrua, the head of the Bureau of the World Bank in Bucharest said, showing that this is obvious from the six reports they made at the request of the authorities. He also said that these domains have a big potential to draw structural funds.

He also said that there are improvements to make in the fiscal administration. Francois Rantrua gave the example of Bulgaria where the World Bank had a similar programme which after the restructuring of the sector had a substantial increase of income collection. » We had something similar in Bulgaria and the collections increased significantly. Bulgaria had over 200 adminstrations before the process. After restructuring there were only six agencies, which collect substantially more. This was possible due to the improvement of the process, through IT, and now it is very easy to find whose who do not pay' the head of the WB bureau to Bucharest said.

As regards structural funds, Rantrua said he did not understand why the level of absorption was so low in Romania as they are a priority. The WB official said that ' we should check sector by sector and compare with the EU27 average.' ' In some sectors we are ok, but some others are worse. In transports and agriculture there is place for reform. In other sectors we are ok, for example social protection. Energy is another sector with much potential. When we did these reports we looked for strategies, administrative efficiency and these are the recommendations we propose' Francois Rantrua said.

He also said that through these reports the World Bank does not criticise the government and the recommendations are only something normal. ' We have placed in these reports things which could be improved. There is no perfect state and there is always room for improvement ' he said.

Access to more European funds is important but it doesn't solve everything

Access of Structural funds is a priority and I don't understand why the low level of absorption in Romania but it is important they are efficient, the head of the bureau of the World Bank to Romania, Francois Rantrua said. « If structural funds accession increases, there should get to a sum of 4% per year, and governmental expenditure would be 40% of GDP ' the head of the Bureau of WB to Bucharest said. According to the officials , in order to come back on the increase it is necessary to have public investments, private investors and structural funds accession.

Francois Rantrua said that the ideas in the sectorial reports do not mean conditions to release the loans for Romania but the decision to release the respective sums is in coordination with the achievement of the reform objectives. The head of the World Bank bureau to Bucharest said that they did not discuss if there will be a next agreement with them included in 2011 but they would like to be part of those who sign the agreement.

Sursa: http://www.actmedia.eu

Tags: fiscal funds ministry agriculture bureau there structural reports these world government discussions included which francois agreement should romania rantrua

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