Norway Grants support the prevention of the conflict of interests in local public administration in Romania
Starting with the month of January 2021, 82 mayors and public officers from several communes in Suceava, Botoșani, Vaslui and Galați counties have participated in training sessions on ethics and transparency, conflicts of interest and incompatibilities in local public administration. These were organized under the project “Improving access to and quality of services for citizens – a transparent and accountable public administration”, implemented by the Association of Romanian Communes (ACoR) in partnership with the Association of the Romanian Municipalities (AMR) and the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS).
Those supporting such training sessions under the project are 19 representatives of the local public administration, graduates of training courses and trainers in the topics addressed by the project, conducted in 2020, but also earlier this year. Boncidai Csaba, mayor of Pericel Commune in Sălaj County is among the 19 trainers:
“The fact that I obtained this trainer certificate is a great honour, but also a satisfaction, because I will have the opportunity to share with other mayors in the country the experience I accumulated in 7 terms as mayor of Pericel Commune. I will start the training activity in Sibiu, on April 17, where I will conduct the first training session with mayors and secretaries from communes in Covasna County. I am honoured to represent ACoR and to contribute to the good training of mayors from all over the country”, he declared for Monitorul de Sălaj.
In addition to these trainings, the representatives of the local public administration have at their disposal, online, through the E-TIC Information Centre platform, created under the project, a number of information tools and guides created by the project experts and meant to guide them on how to avoid situations such as conflict of interests and incompatibilities in the exercise of public office or with the legal means to combat acts of corruption in the public administration.
ACoR and AMR will provide a total of 121 training sessions of this type under the project, for 2,800 representatives of some communes and municipalities from all Romania’s counties, including the six sectors of the Capital.
Launched in December 2019, the project “Improving access to and quality of services for citizens – a transparent and accountable public administration” addresses a number of 3,300 representatives of the local public administration, through a number of measures including information and training sessions, an online help-desk service which provides local authorities with legislative information and advice on ethics, transparency, conflict of interests and incompatibility issues, respectively exchange of experience with authorities from Norway and the Republic of Moldova.