Solutions for a digitized Romania, how could dedicated contracts be eliminated? Romania is facing chaos in the digitization of public administration due to the lack of a central governing authority, uncompetitive salaries that drive away specialists, fragmented systems and vendor-locking.
Romania has been facing the challenge of digitizing public administration for decades, but the results remain fragmented and ineffective. The proposal to centralize data in a single secure platform seems utopian, but the initiative exists. The approach is fraught with impediments, basically, up to this point, state-contracted services have not had a strategy behind them, which has led to incompatible, fragmented systems that encourage clientelism.
Ciprian RUS, the President of the Committee for Communications, Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence in the Senate proposes the development of a unique national authentication mechanism, which would integrate existing systems such as Ghișeul.ro or other specific sites. Both the senator and a specialist in IT applications and services for public institutions told Adevărul that the challenge of bringing digital infrastructure to the level of institutions in 2026 is imperative.
The state, an ineffective employer for the IT field
David Burcovschi, an experienced IT-ist, is of the opinion that without this measure, contracts with dedication will continue and the digitization of institutions will only be done on paper. He is also one of the architects of a verification system tested in the February 2024 hospital hacking episode:
“First of all, the fundamental problem with us is not that it is not digitized, that a lot of money is put in for nothing. The problem with us is another. We do not have a body that is the governance authority of digitization. And I am not talking about ADR, that ADR sleeps in its slippers anyway.
There has to be an organization that says this: this is what the protocols should look like, this is what the standard should be. Let them say the architecture per institution and their interconnectivity and only subcontract natural, legal persons to perform those tasks. But let them be project managers. No more individual auctions. Let’s say: we want to work with 10 subcontractors on this project. And them to direct the project from architecture to management. They just write code and do deployments. That’s how it should be. Until hacking there are other problems. Hacking is just a consequence of chaos. In the end.”
He also points out the salary issues that discourage specialists: “So at the state, most of them are completely technical people. That no one wants to work with salaries of 10,000 lei when you can earn 6,000 euros at a corporation, for example. And then that’s not the solution. The solution is to have a body made up of 10 architects, software, hardware and so on. At a conceptual level. And just to subcontract pieces.”
This is also the solution proposed by the senator who initiated the law, which admits the need for a competitive offer from the state and the need for an integrated strategy:
“For this I have two tasks: One, I try, in one form or another, to find a majority at the parliamentary level and, maybe even within the coalition, to move a little bit the logic of this ADR that he regulates, he controls, he implements, the ADR. And let’s somehow try to share the tasks and, my idea, a national software company. We have the national infrastructure company, a software company that can hire people, not those in management, but those who work there, on decent salaries. No one will ever come to you for 6-7,000 lei. And then solutions must be found.”
No exclusivity right for administration
A problem noticed in the environment of IT entrepreneurs is the fact that, in order to ensure the continuity of their activity, service providers use a system that allows them to administer product management fees.
Burcovschi explains how fragmentation and vendor-locking affect digitization:
“All those who succeeded got a contract, they did it in such a way that each software was vendor locked. This means that both through the contract they store the database, lest they lose the maintenance contract and others come.”
Rus talks about open source law: “I, through the open source code law, which I estimate that I will submit in May, after I make all the negotiations that I have to do and after it passes the legal opinion, I say this. That only in exceptional situations and approved at the level of the Romanian Digitization Authority and the National Digital Transformation Council are vendor locking solutions accepted. The rest must be open source and in the future integrable with others so that anyone else can do maintenance, not just the one who sold it to you. Instead of migrating the databases we have and rethinking a new structure, we’re wasting a lot of time starting to migrate, interconnecting applications.”
The issue of personal data security
A common system would also require a system to ensure the protection of the user, but considering that, at the moment, we still live in Romania with the rail file and the abuse of data requests, the prospect of a change can only bring improvements. Ciprian Rus explains the impact on citizens:
“My home address is divided into dozens or hundreds of institutions based on interactions over the years. When trying to unify data architecture and governance, you don’t know what the correct or up-to-date address is. This creates inconsistency and affects all administrative processes. It is a clear example of why piecemeal digitization fails. Any new system must manage this data correctly and uniformly. Without it, digitization remains formal and non-functional.”
David Burcovschi is of the same opinion:
“Instead of using technology to protect the citizen, the system spreads unnecessary information. This is a major security and privacy issue. We need to change the law and practices so that data is centralized and properly verified, not multiplied.”
Rus emphasizes the legislative solution: “As long as you make a contract, there is no legal basis to ask for copies of your bulletin or other redundant documents. Collecting these copies spreads personal data without legal value and creates unnecessary risks. Real data protection means verifying the validity of the contract without asking for unnecessary information. Only in this way can we protect citizens and their personal information. Digitization must be efficient and secure. This is the responsibility of the authorities.”
The IT specialist also notes the fact that, if in Romania, the big corporations have brought a contribution of trust and professionalism, the same standards should be applied in collaboration with the Romanian state:
“There must be an organization that says what the protocols and the standard should look like, that manages the system architecture and directs the projects. This authority must be central and there should not be hundreds of separate decision-making entities. Only in this way can a coherent, interoperable and efficient digitization be built for citizens and institutions. Professionalism and clear standards are essential for success. Decent salaries for specialists are necessary to attract good people. Open source and interoperability must to be clear rules. This is the only way that digitization can become a reality in Romania.”
