State's computerisation: An over 1bn-euro investment that failed to improve efficiency

The state has spent over one billion euros on computers, software, and communications services in the past eight years in order to improve efficiency, but the chaotic acquisitions – done as each institution saw fit, led to the creation of thousands of systems that do not communicate with one another, and which, rather than help, tend to be an impediment. The state does not even know at present how many computers and applications have been purchased with public funds and the amount of 1 billion euros invested in IT&C is in fact an estimate because no one has centralised these acquisitions in the past twenty years. Oversized and lacking coordination, the state’s IT system grows day by day through new acquisitions, which require spending on maintenance, while the system’s efficiency is yet to be proven.
It is not a matter of Romanians not being good with software and communications – thousands of Romanians are employed in companies such as HP, IBM, and Oracle to solve IT&C problems of western companies over the phone, but there is no manager there who can stand up even to the prime minister or to the president, and make sure that state acquisitions are carried out according to the rules of private companies.
“The most important thing would be to have a manager with executive authority in the central administration, at governmental level – similar to an IT manager in a private company. The IT needs a supporter at this level, who does not necessarily have to work in the ministry,” says Sorin Mindrutescu, CEO of Oracle Romania.