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26 martie, 2024

12 martie, 2018

Romania, probably the only country in the world where the reform of the tax authority is required only by business community and citizens

Considering that there are strong reasons for cancelling the ANAF reform project, the World Bank is currently discussing officially this possibility with representatives of the Romanian Government. It is about the USD 90 million loan granted for digitizing and restructuring the tax authority.

cursdeguvernare.ro has obtained the World Bank’s official answers on the chances of this project.


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The formal reasons for these discussions are that „over the past 6 months, there has been an inappropriate implementation of the project phases and no progress has been made towards achieving the development goals.”

Sources close to the Romanian team of negotiators with the World Bank say that „technical disputes” between the experts of the parties regarding the ways of implementing this project started a few years ago but the „last straw” was the decision to establish the National Centre for Financial Information.

Adopted by Mihai Tudose government, the decision is perceived as „a parasite” for the ANAF reform project.

World Bank official position: a confirmation of the reality on the ground


In the latest report on the implementation of the RAMP project, the World Bank announced in February 2018 that the process of modernizing ANAF was stuck right after the first stage of the acquisition of the budget revenue management system, completed in October 2017.

After reviewing the structural problems faced by the Romanian tax authority, the World Bank communicates to the Romanian Government: „These challenges remain major, regardless of the fate of the project for modernizing the budget revenue administration (RAMP).”

cursdeguvernare.ro has asked the World Bank to explain the significance of this statement:

Here is the answer:

“The modernization of the Romanian tax system is critical for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the tax collection process and improving the payment compliance level.

Addressing the issues relating to the IT system maintenance, licenses, hardware endowments, data security, and personnel issues is central and pressing for improving ANAF’s capacity to fulfil its institutional role.

The Revenue Administration Modernization Project (RAMP) supported by the World Bank, registered an inappropriate implementation of the project phases over the past six months and no progress has been made towards achieving the development goals.

These circumstances are strong reasons for a potential annulment decision, but the decision is subject to ongoing discussions with the Romanian authorities.

World Bank officials have also told cursdeguvernare.ro that the outcome of the talks on this issue will be publicly announced.

Stakes of CNIF: who controls the controller

On July 13, 2017, the Romanian Government approved a memorandum that decided to establish the National Centre for Financial Information (CNIF). According to the memorandum, this new structure would be part of the Ministry of Public Finance, the central structure and centralize all tax-related databases.

Immediate objectives of the CNIF, set by the memorandum:

  • designating and treating the MFP IT System as a critical infrastructure of national interest
  • development of a unitary strategy for developing and maintaining the operations of the MFP IT System
  • establishing the resource needs and allocating the necessary funds for maintenance services and for the staged upgrading of the hardware and software infrastructure of the MFP IT System
  • hiring IT&C specialized staff at the central and local level
  • implementation of several projects underway: electronic invoice, centralization of the system for administrating the budgetary receivables, etc.

Most of these objectives, if not all, are already included in the program of ANAF’s modernization, which clearly identifies the technical needs and what should be done.

And for that, as former Minister of Finance Ionut Misa announced, there were even payments done to consultants…

In summary: Shortly before being replaced, Minister Ionut Misa announced publicly that most of 23.5% of the money accessed from the project with the World Bank has been allocated to consulting services on the project.

As a parenthesis – Romania starts to reimburse the loan of USD 91 million under the contract with the World Bank, the first instalment of 7.1% of the principal being scheduled in October 2018.

Under these circumstances, it can hardly be explained, besides the so-called „strategic interest”, Mihai Tudose’s decision to divert the project with the World Bank and bring all tax information even closer to Palatul Victoria and its Chief Information Officer.

More simply: It seems more important to know who is, but especially who is not controlled, than to turn ANAF into a powerful and equidistant tool.

And this trend is not new… We know it especially from the times when the tax authority was headed by Sorin Blejnar or Gelu Stefan Diaconu.

Special mention for the latter:

During the period when the tax authority was under the leadership of Gelu Stefan Diaconu, World Bank experts informed Prime Minister Ponta as well that „ANAF management has started to move away from its commitments, despite the assurances offered by the Minister of Finance at the beginning of this project.”

During Gelu Stefan Diaconu’s mandate – the public officially found out the information only in 2017 – SRI employees were „seconded” to ANAF, called to „optimize” certain sectors of the tax authority’s activity, and the head of the institution makes himself conspicuous for his polemics on Facebook with the critics of the institution.

During Gelu Stefan Diaconu’s mandate, the project of building a new ANAF headquarters and a data centre has also started, a project that has not been completed by those who followed in this position because it seemed to be rather a real estate business than a reform, because of its financial size.

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