The National Office for Centralized Procurement (ONAC) will receive 25 more employees, according to the GEO project of the Ministry of Finance. In order to create these new positions, the Government will use the provisions of the Law on new taxes and the introduction of new ones (L296/2023), which says that “the creation of new positions can only be approved from July 1, 2024, only in cases carefully justified by the memorandum , approved by the Government of Romania or, depending on the circumstances, only at the local level with the approval of local public administration bodies by decision of local/district councils”.

GEO project ONAC employment and salary increase – click to open

Currently, ONAC has 53 positions in the organizational structure.

It also follows from the reasoning that salaries will increase for all employees.

“The increase in personnel costs includes: basic salary, allowances for working conditions, meals, sick leave, insurance contributions for work, other rights to wages in accordance with the law, for the number of 24 positions of adviser on public procurement of the I class, higher 5 class and 1 position of director, as well as salary increases for 53 positions approved by the staffing plan on this date“, the document states.

According to the GEO project, the basic salaries of ONAC staff will be at the same level as the basic salaries for similar positions in the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, a division under the Ministry of Finance, but from the moment of publication in the Official Gazette.

ONAC’s senior advisers last year had a gross salary of 8,543 to 10,368 lei, to which was added a raise of 1,463 lei, a meal allowance of 347 lei and holiday vouchers of 1,450 lei.

Chief counselors received between 6,495 and 8,295 lei per month, and the allowance for harmful conditions reached 1,244 lei, with the same food and the amount of vacation vouchers.

Unfortunately, we cannot make a comparison with the new ANAF salaries, because after last year’s increase (in order to eliminate discrimination in the institution), the new list was not published.

In December 2023, there were 1,292,599 state employees, of which 827,393 were in central state administration bodies.

Why the number of employees and salaries in ONAC will increase

According to the cited source, ONAC is expanding its mandate, powers and responsibilities, intending to organize public procurement procedures for the purchase of medical products intended for the National System of Emergency Medical Care and Qualified First Aid (SNAMUPAC).

The medical products to be procured by ONAC will be described in a general way, and the detailed list of these products will be approved by a joint order of the Minister of Health, the Minister of the Interior and the President of ONAC based on the proposal submitted by the department for

Emergency situations in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Through GEO, a single regime will be established for entities within SNAMUPAC, regardless of whether they are primary users or secondary users – respectively within hospitals, subordinate to the Ministry of Health, administrative-territorial units, the Department of Emergency Situations within the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Romanian Academy.

Regarding SNAMUPAC subjects without the status of a legal entity (UPU/KPU and SMURD), the provisions of the regulatory act will be applied by entities with the status of a legal entity (hospitals) that organized public procurement procedures for them, which will be able to join the centralized procurement conducted by ONAC with the needs of other departments.