Performance and Efficiency – Criteria for Promotion and Career Development for Public Employees

In this paper, we aim to analyze to which extent, in the Romanian public administration system, the professional performance, the efficiency, promotion and career development of the public employees are encouraged and properly evaluated. We consider that these elements have an important contribution to the achieving of public institutions’ and authorities’ missions and objectives, to increase the quality of the public services and upgrade both the living standards of the communities and the level of satisfaction of the beneficiaries. In order to obtain a stronger vision, we will also analyze the main deficiencies and critics of the promotion procedure and the system of evaluation as well as the methods of improvement. Human resources management and the management of public function have adopted and are oriented, as well as the states’ legislations, towards the new criteria for recruitment, promotion and career development of public employees according to professional merits, individual and group work, engagement in work, their ability to solve problems, etc. The promotion, as well as and the democratic and fair exercise of the public employees right to a career are essential elements of successful reforms in administration, the gaining and preservation of citizens' confidence in public institutions and authorities. Therefore, in any democratic society, the recruitment, promotion and evaluation of public employees must be carried out objectively and transparently, taking exclusively into account the professional training, the skills and the personal merits. For example, the promotion of public employees is conditioned, in the Romanian legislation (which respect the provisions of the European Union norms), of obtaining the "very good" rating at the annual evaluation for the last two years. This condition, as well as the entire recruitment, promotion and evaluation procedures, are stipulated by the Romanian legislation.