When Laura Abrudan heard that they were looking for reviewers for the census and that they would be well paid, she was overjoyed. She had just lost her job and the extra penny was a breath of fresh air in these times of terrible prices. He became interested, learned that he could earn 9,000 lei, so he didn’t think twice. Now he regrets it, because it is not known how much money he will take and especially when he will be paid.

Laura Abrudan’s name has been changed to protect her, as according to the contract she has, she is prohibited from damaging the image of the institutions she works for. “Don’t call me a name because I might not see any more lions,” Laura told us.

“I was unemployed and wanted to earn money because I couldn’t earn enough. I heard from a friend that they were looking for reviewers, so a light bulb went off for me right away and I went to find out how to sign up. Eventually I managed to get on the review team. I came from a company that was engaged in citizen surveys, so it was relatively easy for me to fill out questionnaires,” she tells the HotNews correspondent.

The average number of questionnaires that the reviewer filled out every day was 5-7 questionnaires. Because some were not at home, others were, but did not want to finish or wanted the reviewer to come another day. Laura did 12 to 20 tests a day precisely because she needed the money.

“I left home at 7 in the morning and came back late at night. The first unpleasant surprise happened to Mrs. A. from the district statistics office. For 3 weeks he didn’t process any of my questionnaires and after 3 weeks about 300 questionnaires were collected. So he allowed himself to argue with me about why I was giving him so much work and that because of me he would also work on weekends,” says Laura.

“Although I had a very… let’s call it unstable territory, I ended it and asked for a new territory, also with the idea of ​​​​making money. I was turned down, even though INS officials complained publicly that they didn’t have enough reviewers,” Laura says.

“To give you an idea of ​​how it worked, I can tell you that the temperature outside was over 40C. While on the field, you had no access to toilets. Sometimes you had to deal with respondents who adopted aggressive behavior. It also happened 7 times, on different days, at different times at the same address, I left written messages in the mailbox, messages to neighbors, messages in the HOA WhatsApp groups, pasted posters on announcements. board… In the end, no one opened the door for me. I was struck by the lack of cooperation with those in the state apparatus who were involved in the census process. The tablet was freezing, loading, the system refused to load my verified questionnaires,” says Laura.

The work was done, but the money…

It should be noted that several observers called the HotNews editorial office, but in general the problems were the same.

The census ended 2 months ago, the Romanian state took advantage of the reviewers’ work, but even today the reviewers do not know:

• What is the term of payment, the firm, is expected. There is not even an estimate here, and nothing is specified in the contracts

• What is the number of verified surveys for each reviewer so they know how much money they can count on

What does the government say?

It is difficult to say when the money will be received. At the earliest, at the end of the year, that is, 6 months after the completion of the works, which is inhumane.

HotNews spoke with representatives of the authorities, who are engaged in surveying the population and housing and communal services. Everyone has their own excuse, to some extent understandable. But when you look at the big picture, you realize that the whole architecture was wrong.

Technically speaking, the reviewers were hired by the city hall, so the city halls have to pay the bills. But city halls were waiting for money from the Ministry of Finance. What does the Ministry of Finance expect from the Government. (this is a matter for the Government’s decision, which should be given in this sense).

INS initiated the draft of the Government’s resolution. While on public discussion, the draft can be discussed and approved at a government meeting after obtaining approvals from the involved ministries.

After its approval, the Government transfers the money to the Ministry of Finance, which sends it to the city halls of the country, after which they contact the reviewers and make the payment.

At the moment, it is not clear to which ministry the project, when it will receive all the approvals, how much will be at the public hearing, how long it will take to transfer the money to the municipalities and then to the people. Former employees of the State Treasury say that all these procedures can last from 4 months to a year.

INS says that reviewing the questionnaires was difficult because sometimes there were 2 or 3 reviewers working on the same tablet and each user had to be broken down according to the code used in each questionnaire, which took time. “There were reviewers who came, worked for a day or two and left. After them came others who also worked for 2-3 days and left. And it worked on the same tablet. Maybe that’s why it takes a long time to identify each reviewer’s code,” say INS employees who participated in the population and housing census.

The Government (remember, the National Institute of Statistics is under the control of the Prime Minister) says that “someday” a government resolution will be issued that will allow people to pay their salaries. But it is not clear when and how.

The total amount of payments is 192 million – this is a huge amount at the budget level – but the authorities take advantage of the fact that it is necessary to clarify the situation of each municipality – who receives money and how much.

In the involved ministries, things are still going in a corkscrew: it is not known where the draft Government Resolution is now and when the reviewers will be able to receive the money.

Conclusion

The government undertook to conduct a population and housing census, on the basis of which it will build its social and economic policy in the coming years. Censuses are conducted worldwide by statistical institutes and payment is the responsibility of the government. In our country, people who do work that should be useful to the Government go without pay for months. No one’s fault, to be clear.

Perhaps some mechanism had to be thought of where the money would be distributed before the data collection process was completed so that people could be paid. And monetary disagreements between state bodies should be resolved later.