A new explanation has emerged for the decline in incomes of some public employees in the first three months of this year. After the salary law was considered "responsible" for the salary cuts, trade unions are now talking about a report of the Court of Accounts, according to which around 20% of the 1.4 million public sector employees received illegal state bonuses.
The Court of Accounts, an audit institution subordinated to Parliament that deals with the public sector, sent a report at the beginning of the year, according to which 235,000 employees in the public sector had received illegal state bonuses amounting to a total of 259 million euros. The report, put together following last year's checks, was sent to Parliament, the Government, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Administration and of the Interior and to the Labour Ministry, and targeted personnel costs, the number of jobs provided for in the local budgets between 2005 and 2008, as well as state bonuses received by public sector employees. Since the beginning of this year, state sector employers eliminated the bonuses called into question by the Court of Accounts, but the income decline coincided with the enforcement of the salary law, which applies to all 1.38 million employees in the state sector.
"At the beginning of the year, when salaries were recalculated in accordance with the positions provided for in the salary law, each public institution eliminated from the salary the bonuses called into question by the Court of Accounts. We knew last year that there would be checks, because this is the role of this institution, but we did not have information on the extent of this phenomenon (illegal bonuses i.e.)," said Valentin Mocanu, state secretary in the Labour Ministry.
A new explanation has emerged for the decline in incomes of some public employees in the first three months of
