IMPROVING STRUCTURAL INTERVENTIONS THROUGH THE EVALUATION PROCESS. CASE STUDY - THE REGIONAL OPERATIONAL PROGRAM OF ROMANIA 2007 – 2013

This paper is part of a broader study that addresses the topic of the role of evaluation within the System of Structural Instruments in Romania. The main objective is to identify the mechanisms that can lead to the institutionalization of evaluation as an instrument of public interventions improvement. The study is based on several key assumptions: the current maturation level of the evaluation culture in Romania is still incipient, the development of the evaluation process is considered only under the framework of structural instruments, the low impact of the evaluation practice towards the interventions at stake and the waste of financial, human and time resources that is being generated when a system does not fulfill its main purpose. The current article presents a study case of the evaluation system developed under the Romanian Regional Operational Program during the financial cycle 2007 – 2013. The research is based on an analysis of the evaluation process that aims to highlight its strengths and weaknesses as well as to determine a set of main factors that influence the capacity of the process to achieve its purpose, namely to contribute to the increase of the efficiency and effectiveness of the Regional Operational Program. The article is focused on the analysis of the perspective of the stakeholders that are involved in the management and evaluation process. Therefore it is based on an exploratory approach, analyzing data collected from the hard core side of this sector, which includes the commissioners of the evaluation studies at the level of the program, the managers of the evaluation system at the central level and the external evaluation experts that develop the evaluation studies and deliver the evaluation reports