The Minister of State for Public Administration and Anti-Corruption, Adea Pirdeni, stated today in a media statement from the Prime Minister's Office that the government has approved a decision regarding the taking of measures and monitoring of the activity, conduct or use of human resources of the state administration, during the electoral process for the 2025 general elections.
"The purpose of this decision is to guarantee the impartiality of the entire electoral process and to guarantee an equal climate for the candidacy of all candidates of all political forces, taking into account the obligation of the public administration, an obligation that stems from the Electoral Code, to guarantee the impartiality of the administration throughout this process," said Pirdeni.
The Minister underlined that, "the purpose of this decision is to specify in more detail all the obligations that all public servants, especially civil servants, but also other state administration employees have regarding their engagement during the electoral process, of course in addition to and in full guarantee of all their constitutional rights and constitutional freedoms, but taking into account the obligations that apply to public administration employees, some specific obligations."
These obligations, Pirdeni emphasized, "are of another level, even more reinforced for another category of public administration employees, such as employees of the State Police, employees of the Republic Guard, active military personnel, and of course also for employees of the Intelligence Service for whom guaranteeing their depoliticization during this period is also a necessity to be guaranteed."
In this decision, Pirdeni added, "we have ensured that all commitments that all heads of institutions, heads of ministries, heads of subordinate institutions will have to undertake are foreseen in detail, to guarantee that work is organized in advance to inform, to well-organize the entire process of respecting the obligations stemming from the Electoral Code, to exercise periodic controls over their subordinate institutions, to guarantee a complete monitoring of the entire functioning of the administration, the use of human resources, but also material ones throughout the entire pre-election period."
Also, the minister emphasized, "it is expressly provided in this decision that, as dictated by the Electoral Code, the Department of Public Administration will suspend all recruitment procedures for the election campaign period, i.e. from April 11 to May 11, in order to guarantee a regular and fair electoral process."
Pirdeni added that in this decision, the government has moved to another level to guarantee an even higher standard of preventing the use of public administration during the electoral process, foreseeing that as of March 3, any recruitment procedure through those institutions that recruit their employees through the Labor Code will be prohibited from hiring and employing new employees.
Of course, Pirdeni added, "the initiated procedures will have to be completed, but no new employment procedures in the ministry, in the institutions of dependencies, but also in all those joint-stock companies where the state is the owner, new recruitment procedures will not be developed and this decision only provides for an exception that only in exceptional cases when it comes to emergency needs to fulfill those obligations that stem from legislation in areas such as critical infrastructure, health, education or defense, under the responsibility of the head of the institution, it will be guaranteed that those emergency needs are met."
Pirdeni stated that, "beyond emergency needs, this entire recruitment process will be suspended for all employees whose relations are regulated by the Labor Code from March 3 to May 11 to guarantee that this entire pre-election process takes place in a calm climate, in a climate in full compliance with all standards of impartiality of public administration, but also in respect of course of all rights and obligations that employees of our institutions have."