Georgia State vs. Romania

Georgia’s state and local governments are more committed to protecting their citizens from possible unethical behavior of their public officials than the Romanian authorities. At the state level, Georgia has an Ethics Commission and ethics legislation in place. “It is declared to be the policy of the state to protect the integrity of the democratic process and to ensure fair elections; to institute and establish a requirement of public disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures and to make sure that the state’s public affairs are best served by disclosures of significant private interests of public officers and officials which may influence the discharge of their public duties and responsibilities” (The Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Act of 2010).

What is more important though is that the Commission is actually investigating cases that can be seen online. I could search over 700 cases which ended in administrative dismissals, commission orders, compliance agreements, consent orders, or dismissals. Romania, on the other hand, has a national agency called “The National Agency for Integrity.” Apart from the big bureaucracy that is regulating it, one can hardly find 100 cases of investigations.

At a local level, it is notable to mention the outreach efforts of nonprofits that are urging local administrations to pass ethics legislation. Such a program is the “Certified Cities of Ethics Program,” run by Georgia Municipal Association and supported by a large number of organizations. The program emerged after concerns over a trend towards less confidence in public officials. Certification under this program is a way to recognize cities that have adopted principles and procedures that offer guidance on ethical issues, along with a mechanism to resolve complaints at the local level. To become cities of ethics, local administrations first need to adopt a resolution subscribing to five ethics principles:

1. Serve others, not ourselves.
2. Use resources with efficiency and economy.
3. Treat all people fairly.
4. Use the power of our position for the well-being of our constituents.
5. And create an environment of honesty, openness and integrity.

Second, they need to pass an ordinance that contains definitions, an enumeration of permissible and impermissible activities by elected officials, due process procedures for elected officials charged with a violation of the ordinance and punishment provisions for elected officials who have been found in violation of the ordinance.

The program has already certified 226 cities, 3 counties and 5 organizations. It is a very good track record, although there is still much work to be done given that the State of Georgia has 159 counties and 624 cities and townships. In Romania, the behavior of the county and city council members is vaguely endorsed by the Charter of the County / Local Council:  elected County / City Council officials have to conduct their activity with honor and correctness; it is forbidden for them to request money, goods or advantages. Council members also file a declaration of interests and a declaration of assets.

What is at stake? A lot of money. Here is some budget data for fiscal year 2011 in the State of Georgia and Romania. These budgets pay for our education, healthcare, security, transportation infrastructure, to name but a few. They provide the backbone of our lifestyle and for having better communities.

State of Georgia (United States) budgets vs. Romania budgets

From my point of view, one of the greatest challenges to have stronger ethics legislation put in place is to raise awareness among citizens that ethics in government is important to their communities and to their increased standard of living. We need to find methods to engage them more effectively in the debate about ethics reform and give them stronger tools to put pressure on elected officials to pass ethics legislation. (Article published on Common Cause Georgia’s blog).

Common Cause Georgia works to ensure that the political process serves the public interest.

Part of my line of work at Common Cause Georgia, United States is to assist in the development of a local government ethics board. Ethics seems to be something that everybody talks about and knows about, but one can feel the effects of lack of ethical behavior in the community, especially in the developing countries. But what is government ethics? One definition that I particularly like is given by Robert Cusick, Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics: “That system of laws and procedures which tends to ensure that official government decisions are informed by the public interest and not corrupted by private interests. The core of that system is the identification and disclosure of conflicts, which is followed closely by measures to remove or remedy the conflicts. Accountability and transparency are the cornerstones of those efforts.”

An ethical organization should embrace at least three essential elements:

1. A code or set of principles which is enforceable.
2. Ethical leadership of the organization.
3. And an ethical culture that arises from the first two.

The US Federal Government issued legislation that ads 14 more principles that broadly define the obligations of public service.  Underlying these 14 principles are two core concepts: employees shall not use public office for private gain, and employees shall act impartially and not give preferential treatment to any private organization or individual.

As Thomas Jefferson said, “the whole art of government consists in the art of being honest,” it is vital that citizens choose their elected officials with great care. The first step to do that is to actually go to vote and elect people who they consider are most ethical, as these people not only make important decisions but also appoint key governmental executives. The back-up plan for that is for citizens to put pressure on governments to establish the position of “ethics officers” or have the initiative and courage to run for elected offices.

My work experience with Common Cause Georgia is facilitated by the Community Solutions Program, funded by the US Department of State’ Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and implemented by IREX: www.flickr.com//photos/irex/sets/72157627500775854/show/with/6073410682/

The Community Solutions Program (CSP) kicked-off with an orientation meeting in Washington, DC, United States. Inspired by President Barack Obama’s experience as a community activist in Chicago, the program aims for global community leaders to improve their capacity for local community intervention and problem-solving and be ambassadors for increased mutual understanding. The first edition of the program brought together 66 community leaders from 21 countries who were matched up with organizations from over 20 U.S. different states. CSP is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and implemented by IREX.

CSP fellows acquire a global peer network and build relationships with U.S. practitioners, learn tools and models for effective organizational leadership, learn strategies and best practices to address economic, environmental, political, or social challenges, and strengthen their ability to solve community problems.

Taking part in this program is both rewarding and stimulating my future plans. I’ll be working with Common Cause Georgia!

Bran Castle and Bran Customs Museum

I am spending the New Year in Bran, my most favorite resort in Romania. Together with some close friends of mine, have decided to learn some new things about this fascinating place that gave birth to the legend of Dracula and that is very rich in history. The first interesting place that we discovered was a small cript that once hosted the heart of Queen Mary of Romania. She was so in love with Bran, that she wanted to leave her heart here.

Bran Castle overlooks the road of Bran, which was considered to be the most important merchant road that linked Transylvania to Wallachia, two of the three principalities of Romania. On this road, linked to the most important European mercantile roads, intense commerce took place between the Orient and Western Europe. When passing through the Bran Valley, the merchants had to pay a customs duty called “tricesima,” equal to 3.3 percent of the value of their merchandise.

Photo Gallery: Bran Castle, Bran Customs Museum, the cript where the heart of Queen Mary of Romania was deposited in 1940.

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The Romanian Government gave Bran Castle to the Habsburg family this year. From my point of view this was not fair, as the Castle was given by the Municipality of Brasov to the Royal Family in the 1920s, when they were crowned. All the pieces of furniture were moved inside the new Bran Customs Museum. The Romanians pay a rent of 10,000 euro a month for the building. Here is what was moved from the Castle:

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I passed through Bran Valley many times, but I never realized that the ruins of the walls that once guarded the Bran Customs are still standing. They used to separate Transylvania from Wallachia. Now, unfortunatelly, they are not marked properly and not used for touristic purposes. So, you need to pay attention to find them.

Photo Gallery: the ruins of the wall that defended the Bran Customs and that divided Transylvania from Wallachia.

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Further resources about Bran: Bran Castle Museum, Wikipedia, On the Footsteps of Dracula.

The table of contents includes the following chapters: Listening to Romanians; The Romania You Don’t Know; Beyond Communism; Living in the “Paris of the East;” A Drive in the Country; The Good King; Inside Transylvania; Deep in the Heart of Romania; In the Mountains of Maramures; It’s Moldavia not Moldova; The Blue Danube and the Black Sea; Back in Europe; Living in the Balkans, in the Shadow of the Kremlin; and Why Romania Works.

More details about the book and the launching ceremonies can be found at www.draculaisdead.com. The book can be purchased from Amazon at this link. Below, is a recent interview of former CNN correspondent Bob Franken with Sheilah and Jim, on ‘Dracula is Dead.”

Thank you for a nice job!

Pepperdine School of Public Policy at Top Grad Schools in Bucharest, 2009

Once again, the School of Public Policy from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA attended the QS Top Grad School Fair in Bucharest, Romania, on October 12, 2009.

The Fair is part of the QS World Grad School Tour, the world’s largest and most popular Masters recruitment events. This year, Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy presented its Master of Public Policy Program (MPP) to a large number of interested Romanian students. The new brochures of the School were depleted quickly and Melinda van Hemert—the Assistant Dean of Student Services— and I, answered the numerous questions related to admissions, life at Pepperdine, student aid, the curriculum, and the faculty of the MPP Program. Also, representatives of the mass-media asked questions about the MPP Program.

Any interested prospective student can request admission materials online, at http://publicpolicy.pepperdine.edu/admission/request/ or contact me for a meeting in Bucharest or Galati (email: roprea@lycos.com). The new Viewbook can be downloaded or printed at http://publicpolicy.pepperdine.edu/admission/viewbook/.

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To take a look at what happened last year, check out the video clip below:

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To discover “The Legend of the Waves,” check out the video below:

There are two exciting places that I visited this summer: the Danube Delta and the most famous Romanian mountain resort, Sinaia.

I went to the Danube Delta for a training course on leadership, with Aspen Institute Romania. We had one day off, so we went sightseeing on the beautiful channels. At some moment, we came across a colony of pelicans, so we kept chasing them. After approximately five minutes of chasing, they realized there’s no way to get rid of us on the channel, so they had to fly away….or they just got tired of us! Smart guys!