Civil Servant Training (RO0058)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: Romania Action Plan 2018-2020
Action Plan Cycle: 2018
Status:
Institutions
Lead Institution: Ministry of Justice (MJ), Directorate for Crime Prevention
Support Institution(s): Anti-Corruption General Directorate
Policy Areas
Capacity BuildingIRM Review
IRM Report: Romania Transitional Results Report 2018-2020, Romania Design Report 2018-2020
Early Results: No IRM Data
Design i
Verifiable: Yes
Relevant to OGP Values: No
Ambition (see definition): Low
Implementation i
Description
Annual mandatory training of civil servants on integrity matters
2018-2019
Lead implementing agency/actor Ministry of Justice (MJ), Directorate for Crime Prevention Other actors involved State actors Anti-Corruption General Directorate CSOs, private sector, multilaterals, working groups What is the public problem that the commitment will address? As there is a low level of anti-corruption education among civil servants, one of the objectives proposed by the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2016-2020 is to deploy online training modules dedicated to management and executive staff in central and local public institutions and authorities, as well as those in their subordination / coordination structures.
Lead implementing agency/actor Ministry of Justice (MJ), Directorate for Crime Prevention Other actors involved State actors Anti-Corruption General Directorate CSOs, private sector, multilaterals, working groups What is the public problem that the commitment will address? As there is a low level of anti-corruption education among civil servants, one of the objectives proposed by the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2016-2020 is to deploy online training modules dedicated to management and executive staff in central and local public institutions and authorities, as well as those in their subordination / coordination structures.
Milestone activity with a verifiable deliverable Responsible agency / partner Start Date: End Date: Developing the training program MJ November 2018 December 2018 Develop the e-learning format for the professional training courses MJ July 2019 August 2019 Additional information Budget The budget will be 1,103,130 lei. The source already exists, with European funds being made available to implement this action through the Operational Capacity Administrative Program (OCAP), on the project "Strengthening the Administrative Capacity of the Technical Secretariat of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2016-2020 to support the implementation of anti-corruption measures". The financing agreement was signed on 21 November 2017 and will have an implementation period of 22 months. Correlation with other government programs/strategies This commitment is correlated with the specific objective no. 4.1. - Increasing the degree of anticorruption education of the personnel from the central and local public authorities and institutions, from the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, whose actions include: - Development by the MJ of an annual, on-line training program on public-service integrity issues, dedicated to senior management and executive staff in public institutions (OGP Commitment / London Summit Commitment); - Organize and run sectoral programs to raise awareness and level of anti-corruption education among staff in central and local public administration
IRM Midterm Status Summary
11. Annual mandatory training of civil servants on integrity matters
Commitment Text: "MJ will provide the e-learning platform and will develop support materials for online training in the field of integrity, accessible from the eLearning platform of the Ministry of Justice. Leaders and executives from local and central public institutions and authorities will be able to access e-learning modules based on usernames and passwords. Participants who will follow on-line training sessions will need to take a test to complete the course. These interactive modules will consolidate the information already held by users and will provide new information on ethics and integrity. Participants will take a test after completing the courses."
Milestones:
-
- Developing the training program
- Develop the e-learning format for the professional training courses
Start Date: November 2018
End Date: August 2019
Editorial Note: The commitment text is abridged. The full text can be found in the OGP 2018-2010 national action plan.
Context and Objectives
Implementation of the National Anticorruption Strategy (SNA) 2012-2015 revealed that the level of anticorruption knowledge among public servants is low. Consequently, one of the objectives of the 2016-2020 SNA was to train management and executive staff in central and local public authorities as well as in the subordinated structures on how to prevent corruption. Continued from Romania’s previous action plan (2016-2018), this commitment adds an anticorruption element to the curricula used in the mandatory trainings of public servants.
As written, the anticorruption training in this commitment represents internal government accountability efforts that lack a public-facing element. Nevertheless, according to an interviewed representative of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the public will be given access to the anticorruption e-learning materials used to train the public servants, as they will be published on the MoJ website and will be referred to during the awareness raising campaigns that MoJ will coordinate in the context of Commitment 12 of this action plan. [111] The training program and e-learning format are clearly written and verifiable.
This commitment could increase the knowledge of public servants on how to prevent conflicts of interests and eventual crimes of corruption. However, it does not specify the content of the training, and without any specified enforcement mechanism or other way to change incentives, it is unclear what impact it will have on changing bad practices. Consequently, this commitment has a minor potential impact.
Next steps
While training civil servants on integrity matters, and raising internal awareness on corruption may contribute to preventing corruption, the IRM researcher recommends adding a public-facing component to this commitment if it is carried forward. To this end, MoJ could open the training materials to the public and raise awareness on the training efforts of the MoJ, the amount of trainings provided, the number of public servants that have successfully completed the trainings, and the training materials. If these elements are made public, this commitment may marginally increase citizens’ trust in public administration.
Overall, however, given the low potential impact of this commitment, the IRM researcher does not recommend carrying this commitment forward to the next national action plan.
[111] Interview with Ruxandra Banica, Ministry of Justice (MoJ), 28 August 2019.
IRM End of Term Status Summary
11. Mandatory trainings of civil servants on integrity
Not started
According to the OGP repository, the National Anticorruption Strategy 2016-2020 (an EU co-founded project to support the implementation of anti-corruption measures) would financially support the delivery of the trainings and the e-learning module. [62] The project was eventually cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19. [63] Thus, the commitment was not started.