About AfaceriPublice.ro

Afaceripublice.ro was created in 2007 by the Transparency of European Funds in Romania program as an on-line system for recording public information in connection with the projects carried out through European pre-accession funds.

The continuation of projects and activities in regard to the transparency of the EU funds absorption process, beginning in 2009, motivated the actual development of this website. Afaceripublice.ro is an essential resource, extremely useful for anyone interested in the management of European funds in Romania, including media experts, civil servants, or citizens and organizations that function in the public sector.

This site offers a platform of communication among citizens, public officials and media experts by airing complaints and posting official positions and/or solutions offered by the authorities or institutions qualified to handle these problems.

About Us:

The Good Governance Department of ActiveWatch–Media Monitoring Agency was founded in 2002 as a result of our involvement in projects and campaigns for the purpose of increasing transparency in the actions of government and combating corruption. From the moment of its inception, the Department expanded its activities by developing projects aimed at encouraging such things as public participation, the principle of integrity in public administration, transparency of European funds, continued development of environmental norms, and so on. All these activities have as a goal the raising of awareness and respect in regard to the principles of good governance in Romania.

About the Transparency of European Funds in Romania Project

The history of the project

The Transparency of European Funds in Romania program has expanded since 2006 as a result of the efforts made by the Good Governance Department of ActiveWatch-Media Monitoring Agency in the area of promoting and applying the principles of transparency and accountability in the public sector.

Thus, between 2006 and 2010, many projects were developed that had as a common denominator the monitoring of the way European funds were managed in order to identify any irregularities that might arise in the process and to combat corruption:

• 2006: the creation of the Coalition for the Transparency of European Funds
• 2006-2007: the development of the Transparency of European Funds project, with financing provided by the Open Society Institute;
• 2007-2008: the development of the Transparency of European Funds project, with financing provided by the CEE Trust (Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe);
• 2008-2009: the development of the Transparency of European Funds project, with financing provided by The European Union through the PHARE program 2006/ 018-147.01.02/02/03
• 2010: the development of the Transparency of European Funds project, with financing provided by the European Union through the Transition Facility Program 2007/ 19343.01.11 – consolidating civil society’s support in combating corruption.

A number of other courses of development followed in the wake of these projects:

2007

Competent journalists. In 2007, our concern for the transparency of the ways European funds were managed led us to train 40 journalists from several counties across the country in the process of monitoring the development of European funds in Romania.

During the training, the journalists benefited from technical and professional support provided by experts from the Fight against Fraud Department and the National Anticorruption Director.

The suspected cases of corruption in connection with European financing, which were identified by the trained journalists, were published in mass media and, in addition, were presented to the Ministry of Public Finance and other competent authorities.

Resources. At the same time, the project directed itself toward providing updated resources for those interested in the issue through the creation of the afaceripublice.ro website, which gathers relevant information about European funds.

Research. Irregularities arising in the process of funds management can be of two types: on the one hand, they can be generated by acts of corruption; on the other hand, they may be triggered by flaws in the implementation mechanisms or a lack of knowledge about actual procedures.

In order to accurately identify these two types of irregularities, two research analyses were drawn up (The Transparency of European Funds in Romania, Report of Monitoring and Analysis of European Financing, June 2007; and the Transparency of European Funds in Romania from the Issue of Pre-accession Funds to that of Post-Accession Funds), which took place in Romania’s geographical regions of development. Several interviews and focus groups were set up with civil servants of public administration, companies involved in the process of implementing programs financed by European funds, as well as other relevant actors.

The results of the research can be relevant in the event of a possible advocacy campaign that might follow any change of regulation in connection with the administration of European funds.

Public consultation: the efficiency of projects financed by European funds may be affected not only by irregularities, but also by the content of the actual projects (by a lack of efficient solutions to the issues identified above, for example). In order to promote a certain type of activity that would consolidate the realism and efficiency of the projects, we organized meetings between the local public officials, citizens and implementers in two pilot counties (Brăila and Dolj). The process was organized with the support of Asociaţia Pro Democratia (The Pro-Democracy Association) and Partners Foundation for Local Development.

2008

Transparency. In 2008, our program’s main concern was to bring transparency to the process of European funds development at the level of local and central administration. We solicited information about current projects from among 150 institutions, including information about the amount of money requested from European funds, their procedures for assigning contracts, and others).

We also began designing an online database for projects financed through European funds. The database – the Index of Projects from European Funds – contains information acquired by means of the procedure mentioned above, as well as information from over 1600 companies involved in project implementation.

Specialized journalists. The monitoring of suspected cases of irregularity and administrative dysfunction carried out by investigative journalists continued throughout 2008 as well.
Apart from the investigations performed by our program’s team of journalists, press articles that dealt with the issue of European funds were given special attention and published in 32 local and five national journals, monitored over the course of four months.

The results of Media monitoring can be accessed in the resource section of the site dedicated to this program.

2009

European Union funding represents an alternative to insufficient internal funds, so that discourse directed at European monies assumes major importance on the potential strength of these funds. The process of making transparent the European funds management increases its value along with the importance of the European funds. On the other hand, the corruption issue continues to affect vulnerability at the administrative level, which is why the efforts of investigative journalists maintain their relevance.

With the financial support of the European Union, the PHARE 2006 Civil Society program, ActiveWatch-Media Monitoring Agency along with its partner, the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism, continued activities aimed at increasing transparency in the process of European funds development in Romania, with an eye toward invigorating the absorption level of the aforementioned funds.

Our measures had in view the enrichment of dialogue between citizens and the officials responsible for the administration of European funds, the latter being the only ones capable of finding a solution to possible irregularities.

Accomplishments:

• Afaceripublice.ro was further developed by the increase of projects from our databases; about 350 petitions were sent on the basis of Law 544/2001 to local and central public officials, management authorities, and so on;
• Early Warning System – the creation of a system of petition entry/ receiving from different relevant actors (officials, institutions, beneficiaries) regarding the manner of implementing European funds;
• A report of analysis concerning citizen awareness levels with regard to the way European public money is spent;
• A report of media analysis;
• Nine investigative inquires and two articles of analysis.

The project was funded by the European Union through the PHARE program 2006/ 018-147.01.02/02/02, and was implemented between December 2008-October 2009.

2010

In 2010, ActiveWatch-Media Monitoring Agency / Good Governance Department continued the activities previously started by contributing to the increase of public opinion awareness and encouraging an attitude of zero tolerance towards corruption; by creating a network for the prevention and fight against corruption, implementing several training programs intended to identify and prevent corruption; and by promoting transparency and accountability among political institutions and public administrations.

Thus, the Transparency of European Funds, with support from the European Union through the Transition Facility Program 2007/ 19343.01.11, developed the Consolidation of Civil Society’s Support against corruption during January–October 2010.

The goal of the project was to increase transparency in the process of European funds management through the prevention and eradication of forms of fraud and corruption.

The target groups: public representatives, civil servants responsible for the development of European funds in public administration; members of appropriate ministries, officials for implementation and management who will respond to requests for information on the basis of the Law of free access to information in the public interest, NGOs, investigative journalists, local and central Media channels, and citizens.

Accomplishments in 2010:
• The development of the online project afaceripublice.ro
• The database Index of Local Integrity – a source of information for journalists, civil society, or ordinary citizens seeking relevant public information about the qualities of the representatives of the Counties’ Councils, the Institution of the Prefect, mayors of the cities in the counties, etc.
• Investigative journalism surveys, together with ten journalists at the central and local levels, can be read by accessing afaceripublice.ro.
• Involvement of NGOs and local authorities to promote the project.