The OECD Secretariat wishes to express its gratitude and acknowledge all the institutions and individuals that have contributed to this Open Government Review of Romania. The OECD team would like to thank all involved stakeholders for their flexibility in making themselves available for in-person and online interviews and substantive discussions of the results of this work.
In particular, the OECD would like to thank the team of the Open Government Directorate of the General Secretariat of the Government for their dedication and commitment throughout the process, including mobilising all relevant stakeholders. The leadership of Marian Neacsu, Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the Government of Romania, was essential for this Review. Special thanks go to Laurentiu Mazilu (Councillor, Open Government Service, General Secretariat of the Government), Constantin Cernega (Councillor, Open Government Service, General Secretariat of the Government), Monica Giurgiu (Policy and Priorities Coordination Directorate), Larisa Barac (Councillor, Information Technology and Digitization Department, General Secretariat of the Government), and Robert Lăzăroiu (Councillor, Open Government Service, General Secretariat of the Government) for their commitment and continuous support.
The OECD wishes to extend its gratitude to all institutions from the Romanian central and subnational administrations and non-governmental stakeholders from academia, civil society organisations, and representatives of the private sector that provided inputs and support throughout the project. Overall, the OECD organised more than 20 hours of in-depth interviews, which were instrumental in further improving the OECD’s understanding of the Romanian context.
This Review would not have been possible without the important contribution of the Peer Reviewers, who shared their extensive country-based knowledge and experience during the process, namely:
Ms Doreen Grove, Head of Open Government, Government of Scotland
Ms Clara Mapelli, Director General for Public Governance, Government of Spain
Ms Valeria Lübbert Álvarez, Executive Secretary of the Commission for Public Integrity and Transparency.
This Review was prepared by the Public Governance Directorate (GOV) of the OECD led by Director Elsa Pilichowski, Deputy Director Janos Bertok and Acting Deputy Director Gillian Dorner. The report was drafted under the strategic direction of Carlos Santiso, Head of the Open and Innovative Government Division and the supervision of Alessandro Bellantoni, Head of the Open Government, Civic Space and Public Communications Unit in GOV who provided strategic comments and feedback on the front matter and all chapters. The process was led by David Goessmann, Policy Analyst / Project Co-ordinator with the support of Benedict Stefani, Junior Policy Analyst. David Goessmann also co-ordinated the drafting of the Review and drafted Chapter 1 (Assessment and Recommendations), Chapter 3 (Methodology), Chapter 6 (Taking a strategic approach to open government in Romania) and Chapter 7 (Monitoring and evaluating openness). Benedict Stefani drafted Chapter 2 (Setting the scene), Chapter 4 (Implementing the legal framework for open government) and Chapter 5 (Creating an enabling environment for an Open Government Strategy). Mauricio Mejia drafted Chapter 8 (Towards an open state in Romania). Emma Cantera guided the drafting of Chapter 5 and Claire McEvoy, Marie Whelan and Alice Thomas provided comments throughout to foster alignment with the OECD Civic Space Scan of Romania. Joshua Yeremiyew provided administrative support throughout the Review. Meral Gedik and Adem Kocaman prepared the document for publication. The OECD team would also like to thank those OECD colleagues who provided comments: Carina Lindberg, Felipe Gonzalez-Zapata, Seong Ju Park, Alice Berggrun, Frederic Boehm, Misha Kaur, Heather Buisman, Simon Callewaert, Natalia Nolan Flecha and Andrea Uhrhammer.
The present Open Government Review was conducted in the framework of the project “Capacity building in the field of public governance - a co-ordinated approach of the Centre of the Government of Romania” which benefits from a grant in the amount of EUR 3 020 000, offered by Norway within the Program “Local development, poverty reduction and increasing the inclusion of Roma”, financed by the EEA and Norwegian Grants 2014-2021 and administered by the Romanian Social Development Fund. More information about the project and about the Program “Local development, poverty reduction and increasing the inclusion of Roma” can be found on the websites: www.frds.ro and www.eeagrants.ro.