Motivation
The lack of responsibility in managing public money has become almost a cliché when it comes to Romania. Although the economic crisis and subsequent austerity measures should have led to even greater responsibility in the management of public money, budgetary policy continued to have no real impact on Romania's development or on the quality of life of its citizens. The causes are many, but we set out to focus on three aspects:
- public finances are a mystery to most taxpayers;
- participation in the decision-making process is low anyway;
- there is a deep rift between budgetary and development policies.
Goals
We believe that some of the identified problems can be solved by facilitating citizens' participation in public money management decisions so that they reach where they are needed in the community. Bani pierduti? aims to involve informed citizens (taxpayers) in the decision-making process related to priorities in spending public money. We do this through an online platform that provides both a friendly picture of how public money is spent and tools to participate in the national and local budget decision-making process.
Calendar and supporters
Bani pierduti? received a $5,000 grant in the November 2011 edition of the ReStart Romania Gala, organized by TechSoup Romania with the support of the US Embassy in Romania. Subsequently, the Canadian Embassy supported us in organizing a round table with stakeholders from the non-governmental and governmental system. The BETA variant was launched in May 2012, and since then we have constantly improved and added new functionalities. In 2013, we benefited from two grants through which we developed the participation component: $9,500 through the Democracy Grants program of the US Embassy in Romania and €5000 as a result of winning the IACC Social Entrepreneurs Initiative, organized by Ashoka & Transparency International.
