Number of public sector employees kept secret by Finance Ministry

The most important indicator in the official statements in the last two years, which everyone - the International Monetary Fund, the Government, the public authorities, uses as reference, i.e. the number of public sector employees is a "state secret". This indicator, unlike the unemployment rate published by the Labour Ministry every month, the reference rate published by the NBR every month, as well, and the average wage made public by the National Statistics Institute on a monthly basis, is not specified in any official document of any state institution in Romania. The data about the number of public sector employees were delivered to the press exclusively at the request of the media institutions, Ziarul Financiar included, by the Finance Ministry.

Yet the Finance Ministry does not supply such data at regular intervals, but only upon request, which, even if the number of public sector employees announced by the Finance Ministry is real, precludes anyone interested from monitoring the most important indicator in Romania at the moment.

Since there is no constant delivery to the mass media in form of a report, there may be doubt about this indicator. There are also contradictions between the number of public sector employees revealed by the Finance Ministry and the number than can be guessed from the data supplied by the National Statistics Institute.

Economic analysts believe this secrecy or the lack of interest in communicating essential data do more harm than good to the Government.

"Were these data revealed promptly, the Government could turn the media into an ally; by having all these indicators available in time, the media could explain some of the measures to the people," says economic analyst Aurelian Dochia.