There are some state mechanisms where CSOs are eligible. The budgets are decreasing due to the economic situation. The total state funding at central level for CSOs is less than 4% from the CSOs budgets.
- The Mechanism at the Chamber of Deputies (the lower chamber of the Romanian Parliament) is funding the CSOs to participate in the legislative process. Total amount 200 000 Euro/year, grants up to 10 000 Euro.
- Grants scheme at the Governments Strategy Unit, to be launched for 2010, will be funding NGOs for policy formulation, research and expertise.
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the Official Development Assistance policy, grants to NGOs for projects in Moldova, Georgia and development education.
- Subsidies for social services providers at the Ministry of Labor and social affairs. The state budget (NGOs subsidies program, or national interest program etc.) and county/local budgets (the same subsidies program, or externalizations of public services etc) may contribute to funding services provided by NGOs but to a small proportion and only in those counties or localities which so decide. NGOs are among the main providers of social services in Romania, although their weight is decreasing due to an excessive development of county and municipal social service development. Of the 2,329 accredited social services providers, almost 50% of these are private providers – 49% NGOs (associations and foundations).
There is no institution to coordinate the distribution of the state funding at national level.
The law 350/2005 is governing public grant allocation for nonprofit activities. The government approved the law in December 2005 following a long debate between NGOs and the Ministry of Justice. The law ensures that the process for allocating public funds to nonprofit organizations is more transparent, and holds both public authorities and NGOs more accountable for how they use public funds. The law also requires that public authorities announce the grants they are planning for that year and file a report concerning the recipients and the projects they financed. The law, however, is inconsistent with other laws regulating grant allocation from ministries such as the National Culture Fund, the Environmental Fund, social subsidiaries, and different National Interest Programs funded by the Ministry of Labor, Social Solidarity and Family. The inconsistency creates confusion in the implementation of the laws and regulations.
The best practices in terms of funds allocation to CSOs is the mechanism in the Chamber of Deputies. After consultations with NGOs, the mechanism in the Government unit for strategy will adopt this year the same model.
- The areas of funding are decided after consultation with potential beneficiaries and national resource centers for NGOs such CSDF and Centras
- The call for proposal is announced and published with all the documents: guide for applicants, application form, evaluation grid, draft of the contract to be sign with selected project promoters, FAQ list.
- There are at least 45 days to submit the project or first come first serve
- They provide a help desk for potential beneficiaries
- The list with successful applicants is published.
Administrative procedure is a mix of EU pre accession programs for civil society and NGO fund administrated by CSDF. The rules are legally binding generally. CSDF also developed a mechanism to fund CSOs from the lottery fund since 1998. At the moment there is no political support for lottery funds issue. Last year the Prime Minister office asked CSDF to provide information on this issue but no follow up so far.
Local governments have been under pressure by NGOs to put into practice the provisions of Law 350/2004 on grants, starting from some successful examples in several counties which are running NGO grant-schemes based on this legislation. According to a CSDF study for USAID in 2009 concluded that there is still no effective NGO network or coalition to promote increased funding from local and central budgets to NGOs social services and issues such as cost-effectiveness of private vs. public service delivery mechanisms, effective sharing of responsibilities and competences based on subsidiary principle and coherent national and local strategies for social service delivery. Currently some NGOs in Mures, Bihor counties and Bucharest work on models for joint county / city council – NGO planning and implementation of social services, that may include commissioning of NGO services or grants to cover their costs. Unfortunately the debate on what form of welfare mix should Romania adopt is not of sufficient political interest and the development of social services in Romania is still lagging behind (rural communities do not have enough resources to develop community services, public social services were created in most urban communities but in only 14% of rural communities as of 2007.
Romanian governments prefer proving in–cash social benefits instead of effective family and child care services, thus limiting the resources available for social services funding. The Presidential Committee of Analysis of Social and Demographic Risks has acknowledged the role of NGOs in social welfare and recommended contracting out of services by local authorities and the President of the Chamber of Deputies has shown some interest in working on the issue
e.g. best practice cases
County home care programme – Public-private partnership – a case study
- Partners : County Council & Caritas Harghita county
- Target clients: Elderly, disabled, sick
Results
- Persons assisted on a current basis – 4889
- Total persons assisted in one year – 6857
- Number of service centres – 31
- Number of employees – 150