NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS IN ROMANIA’S PUBLIC SERVICES IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT

Abstract

New Public Management (NPM) is considered as a global paradigm emerging in response to economic, institutional, political, and ideological changes.Many attempts to define the New Public Management have been made and there are several definitions of this notion, referring to the implementation of management ideas from business and private sector into the public services.Over the past few years, Romania has been facing a great challenge as it has to enhance its public management for achieving the European standards and values of transparency, predictability, accountability, adaptability and efficiency. The necessity of a modern administration at European standards exists both at the level of the citizen, and at the level of institutions delivering public services.According to the provisions of its last stand-by arrangement with IMF, Romania placed emphasis on restoring medium- and long-term sustainability and paved the way for future growth. Structural reforms were a large component of the program, including tax administration, pensions, public wages and employment, and social benefits, improving public sector efficiency, as well as enhancing the business environment. Since 2009 a public financial management structure was introduced for multi-year budgeting while limiting intra-year budget revisions. Fiscal rules were introduced on spending, public debt and primary deficit, and a framework for managing guarantees and other contingent liabilities was approved. Local public finance law was amended to bolster fiscal discipline and limit risks from local governments.Thus, presently, the legal framework envisages the use of new instruments and structures to support local administration authorities to increase their administrative capacity in order to perform in accordance with their new authority and thereby increases the quality of the already decentralized public services.The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) ' the total quality management tool was introduced in Romania, public institutions acknowledging the need for change and improvement, the importance of people'(tm)s involvement within the organization'(tm)s self-assessment process, the importance of measuring the results, objectives prioritization, the need to assume responsibility for the identified improvement actions, as well as the need to share knowledge and experience.Most of the Romanian public institutions apply the diagnosis obtained through CAF implementation as a solid ground to develop and implement their Multi-annual Modernizing Strategies, thus assuring the sustainability of the results accomplished so far.Concluding, we consider that the changes incurred and the significant transformation of Romanian public services include important elements of NPM.