At a time when digital transformation often encounters bureaucracy, resistance to change and a lack of vision, there is one place in Romania that contradicts all these barriers: the commune of Ciugud. Its story – told by Mayor Gheorghe Damian in dialogue with Dragoș Stanca – is perhaps the most concrete example that the modernization of a state sometimes begins in the smallest communities.
Ciugud shows that digitalization is not a slogan, but an ongoing process, based on perseverance, education and consistent investment. And its lessons can inspire both the central administration and other local communities.
From a typewriter to a fully digital administration
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When Gheorghe Damian became mayor in 2000, Ciugud City Hall had only one “technological piece of equipment”: a mechanical typewriter. Low budget, high debts and zero digital infrastructure. However, the mayor and his team began a radical modernization process.
The first step was the purchase – with the help of a friend – of a 686 computer and a printer. Then came a symbolic but essential decision: all employees had one month to learn Word, and all documents were to be written digitally.
This decision produced a first “organizational earthquake”: some employees left the institution, refusing the transition to digital. They were replaced by people willing to learn and adapt, a lesson that the mayor repeats even today: “human resources are the key to digital transformation.”
Record absorption of European funds and impact investments
Ciugud is today the commune with the highest absorption of European funds per capita: over 60 million euros attracted, that is, approximately 17,000 euros for each of the 3,500 inhabitants.
These resources have financed infrastructure, digitalization, education and modern public services. But, perhaps most importantly, they have consolidated an administration model based on vision and consistency.
Public services two clicks away: payments, documents, abolished cashier
One of the most visible results of digitalization is rapid access to public services. Ciugud introduced:
- Payment stations in every village, including in local stores
- Citizen’s card, with barcode linked to CNP
- POS at all vending machines, to reduce cash
- Physical cashier abolished, a first among communes
- All documents – from certificates to tax certificates – available online, in a few clicks
The city hall operates almost exclusively digitally today:
- Electronic signatures for all employees (since 2015) and local councilors (since 2020)
- Complete electronic archive since 2008
- No printed documents, with rare exceptions required by legislation
The school in Ciugud – a model of smart education in rural areas
One of the administration’s bravest decisions was the reorganization of the commune’s schools and the investment of 1 million euros in a smart central school, equipped with:
- Chromebooks for every student
- Interactive whiteboards in all classrooms
- Digital platforms for teachers, students and parents
- Virtual labs
- Smart building, Near Zero Energy, fully controlled by software
- Light, temperature and air quality sensors
These investments allowed Ciugud to immediately switch to online school during the pandemic, without additional purchases.
Moreover, students benefit from free transportation, hot meals, and free after-school care, transforming the school into a center of community life.
"Ciugubanul": local currency for education and recycling
In partnership with the school, the administration launched a circular economy project for children: Ciugubanul, a voucher equivalent to 1 leu offered to students for each PET or recycled packaging.
Children thus become agents of change:
- educates parents and the community
- develops extra-contractual projects with the
- accumulated funds
contributes to reducing waste
The result? Pupils, students and people with disabilities do not pay the sanitation fee – the amount of residual waste has decreased significantly.
Resistance to change – the major challenge of local administrations
Although technology has evolved rapidly in the last 20 years, the biggest challenge identified by Mayor Damian remains the same: people’s resistance to change, both in the city hall and in the institutions with which the administration collaborates.
“Even today there are city halls where officials refuse to use a computer,” says the mayor, criticizing the lack of interoperability, redundant investments, and unreasonable bureaucracy – from scanned documents considered “digital” to the obligation to print entire files for the prefecture.
"Digital transformation must be the backbone of the state"
The mayor’s message to the central administration is clear: digitalization must be thought of as a national ecosystem, with a unique and interoperable architecture.
- A digital backbone (government cloud + central systems)
- Uniformly connected institutions
- Real collaboration between the state and the private sector
- Trained and motivated human resources
- Debureaucratization before digitalization
“We cannot build a modern state with a single software company and duplicate projects. We have qualified human resources. We have Silicon Valleys in Romania,” says Damian.
Three lessons for mayors and the central administration
Finally, the mayor summarizes the essence of digital transformation:
- Deberucratization – eliminating unnecessary processes before digitizing them
- The importance of databases – structured, updated, interoperable
- Human resources – people who understand and support change
These three elements define the Ciugud model – a local administration model that not only adopted technology, but managed to integrate it into the life of a rural community in an exemplary way.
Photo Credit: Mihnea Ratte
Full transcript
The full transcript is available below. Minor errors may occur – we used Descript for video-to-text conversion and ChatGPT to remove speech tics, hesitations, and duplicate words. The original content, structure, and tone have been fully preserved.
Full transcript of the conversation: Digitalization of Ciugud commune: public administration, education and online services with Gheorghe Damian and Dragoș Stanca.
Dragos Stanca: Things don’t always go as we want in a live event, so the mayor had to run away, but we have a short video and we will then enter into a short direct connection with him, if we succeed, related to the secret of digitizing a rural community. Five minutes of video and then we will tell a little.
Gheorghe Damian: Poor thing, good day to everyone! I greet you from here, from the mayor’s office in Ciugud, and I want to discuss today what a smart village means, a smart commune, the Smart Village concept launched by us, from Ciugud. Tell us a little about Ciugud. Why is it so special? First of all, for the people here, Ciugud is special, because, ultimately, when we talk about a local public administration, we are talking about local governance. We have to start with the people in mind.
Gheorghe Damian: We have to start thinking about the community and how we do what we do so that the people here feel happy. And we have chosen and understood for some time that, to make people happy in an era of technology, in an era in which our biggest enemy is time, digital transformation is the solution.
Gheorghe Damian: And I think we succeeded. Tell us a little about which projects you are proud of.
Gheorghe Damian: If we are to talk in general about our projects, it is said that Ciugud is the municipality with the highest absorption of European funds in the country. We have attracted somewhere over 60 million euros so far. If we divide by the number of inhabitants, which is 3,500 inhabitants, you will see that we end up with around 17,000 euros per capita, which means a lot, a lot.
Gheorghe Damian: We started the digital transformation in 2000, when I became mayor, and then we found a mechanical typewriter in the city hall. Not even a computer, not even a printer. I know that at that time we had a very small budget and very big debts and we could not afford to buy a computer. But, calling on a friend who was bringing computers from Germany, I remember that I received a 686 from him, I think it was, and a printer along with it.
Gheorghe Damian: And then I called my colleagues from back then and told them: you all have a month to learn Word, so that from now on, in 30 days, no document that comes out of Ciugud City Hall will be typed and edited on a computer.
Gheorghe Damian: Together with the neighboring commune, we wrote another project through which we got another package, much more efficient and improved, and in this way, in 2010, we became, like, the first commune in Romania where you could pay all the fees and taxes on the computer.
Gheorghe Damian: We implemented those payment stations, those payment machines. They are found in every store in the six villages of the commune, one is also found here, in the city hall, so that people can pay their taxes and fees to the city hall any day, during the period the store is open or at the city hall, from 8 am to 4 pm.
Gheorghe Damian: More than that, to make it easier to log in, we issued each of them a citizen card, which is not a big deal: it is a card with their name, on the back there is a barcode that corresponds to their CNP. When they scan the barcode in the slot of the machine, it takes them directly to our platform. And, last year, we effectively demolished the cash register.
Gheorghe Damian: We broke down the walls, we no longer have a cash register and we did one more thing: we installed POS on all the machines, so that we support the removal of cash from the market and convince and educate people to always use their bank cards.
Gheorghe Damian: Everything that means tax certificates, proof of address are two clicks away, they don’t have to go to the city hall and we sincerely want as many services as possible that we offer to citizens to be two clicks away. What can you tell us about the school in Ciugud?
Gheorghe Damian: We had the courage to, four years ago, make a difficult decision: to close down the schools in the other villages at the same time and invest 1 million euros in a well-equipped central school, the first smart school in the rural area, of course offering them something extra: free transportation, free hot meals and free after-school care.
Gheorghe Damian: We prepared teachers and children in such a way that, when the pandemic came, we didn’t need to invest in anything. The teachers were prepared, the children were prepared, our equipment was more than necessary for what the pandemic meant. That’s why our children have dedicated laptops, they’re called Chromebooks, they work directly on platforms; there, parents, children and teachers see what they’re working on. They have virtual labs, they have a smart board in every classroom. The school itself is a smart building, an N-ZEP, Near Zero Energy building. Everything is controlled by software: the bulbs turn on by themselves, turn off by themselves, dim depending on the light outside; the heat is adjusted depending on, I know, how hot it is outside, how cold it is; so is the air conditioning. The oxygen level is measured by sensors, so that we know when it needs to be ventilated.
Gheorghe Damian: How many electric cars are there in the village and how many chargers? Tough question. I can’t tell you, because the statistics change from one day to the next. We started five years ago: we bought our first electric car from the city hall and it was the best deal we ever made in terms of the car fleet.
Gheorghe Damian: Do you have a favorite quote? Yes, it’s the quote I wrote in school: “What the school looks like today, that’s what the country will look like tomorrow.” What advice would you give to Elon Musk, from innovator to innovator? I don’t consider myself an innovator; yes, Elon Musk really is an innovator. In many matters, I may not understand him enough, but I would like him to invest more in what artificial intelligence means for local public administration. What can you tell us about Ciugubani?
Gheorghe Damian: Well, wouldn’t you like me to speak to you better on stage?
Dragos Stanca: Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Damian, the mayor of Ciugud, who has just returned very quickly. Welcome! I hope you forgive me for the misinformation. Let’s take a seat, Mr. Damian. See you again in two years or so. This video was previously broadcast on IQ Digital Cluj.
Dragos Stanca: It has now been updated and let me give you some funny information. It was edited with artificial intelligence, because we didn’t have the time and energy to get to Ciugud to make a new video. I cloned his voice, with the mayor’s agreement, and I had to make two updates: European funds increased from 12 to 17,000 euros per capita, if I’m not mistaken, and the number of employees attracted by platforms around the Ciugud commune also increased. That’s all the updates. Mr. Damian, first of all, you promised to tell us live, on stage, what’s up with Ciucubanu, in 30 seconds.
Gheorghe Damian: Yes, well, Ciucubanu was a project of ours, of the local public administration, in partnership with the school, because we were a commune that fought very hard, many years ago, to determine the population to protect the environment, that is, to collect selectively. And then the first machine was manufactured in Sebeș which, after that, became, starting last year, implemented at the national level, the first recycling machine.
Gheorghe Damian: And then we proposed to install such a device in the school yard. We called it the “recycling robot” and for each PET, for each bottle, for each, I know, packaging brought from home, the child would receive a voucher called Ciuguban. Each Ciuguban is the equivalent of one leu. The local public administration also launched a project.
Gheorghe Damian: All the children collected “ciugubanii” at the class level, after which we transformed them into lei, and with this money the children somehow developed non-educational projects. In this way, the children educated, in turn, their parents, their families, and we reduced the amount of waste that ended up in the pit so much that children from Ciugud up to 18 years old, students and people with disabilities do not pay the sanitation fee.
Dragos Stanca: One of the very important elements that kept repeating itself today, related to any project, but especially to digitalization projects, is your consistency. You have been mayor for a long time. Yes, since 2000. So you have some time. I think we have people in the room who were not born when you were mayor for the first time. I wanted to ask you how complicated the path you took was and what were the most difficult moments.
Gheorghe Damian: We have a saying at our city hall: sometimes it’s hard to even eat, because you may not feel like it.
Gheorghe Damian: It’s very simple to complain, but when you have a dream, when you care about it, when you are surrounded by people who understand your dream, nothing is complicated. Of course, we fell many times, but we got up. We have clashed many times with the institution of the state and I would have liked, gentlemen ministers, to sit down and listen to you from the grassroots level about what we are facing.
Gheorghe Damian: Let’s put it this way, for a moment. When I became mayor, I started the digital transformation with a 686 and a dot matrix printer. And I gave them a month to learn Word. After a month, I was left with half of the employees, because the others said they couldn’t learn digital transformation.
Dragos Stanca: Good.
Gheorghe Damian: We brought in new people, then, in 2001, we bought the first software for local taxes and fees, accounting, cashiering and agricultural registry. The hardest problem I encountered was the resistance of the people in the city hall to change. And it’s been 24 years since then and I still see people in the city halls who don’t accept using the computer, because it’s easier to browse through sheets.
Gheorghe Damian: In 2008, we implemented the internal document circuit and, since then, all documents that entered the Ciugud city hall have been kept in an electronic archive. In 2011, we had our first debt payment application, Global Pay, and after that, ghișeul.ro appeared. By the way, ghișeul.ro has been around since 2011, it’s a very cool platform.
Dragos Stanca: We have some of the doers in the room, you know. If they’re still here, I applaud them.
Gheorghe Damian: But I was unpleasantly surprised when I was doing research a year ago to see how many public administrations are enrolled in ghișeul.ro and I was very disappointed. That’s why I think it’s very important: it’s pointless to create new platforms if we don’t implement them and it’s pointless to create them if someone doesn’t oblige us.
Gheorghe Damian: I mean, this issue that we are doing — and I’m making a parenthesis here — I remember that we implemented that tax payment platform on a project financed by PODC, if you remember, in the period 2007–2013, where we, as a state, spent a lot of money. After which the state came up with ghișeul.ro.
Gheorghe Damian: I mean, in fact, we spent twice for the same thing, which is totally unproductive. Since 2015, all employees have a digital signature. Since 2020, even local councilors have a digital signature. Since 2020, we no longer produce almost any documents on paper, everything is stored and produced digitally.
Gheorghe Damian: Since 2018, we have been in Forex eBook and PatrimVenit. These are, again, some platforms that I want to applaud, because somehow they help us a lot in terms of transparency. And I firmly believe that the solution is digital transformation, not just at the level of public institutions. And I firmly believe that design has been talked about here.
Gheorghe Damian: What we did in Ciugud was to somehow force things, to fight with government institutions in the territory who did not understand that a digital document is not the email that I send with a scanned document. To fight with the prefect who did not understand that, if I produce the documents from the council meeting in digital format, I do not have to print them, bind them, file them and take them to him, because that is what a normative act says and so on.
Gheorghe Damian: I strongly believe that, ultimately, from the central level — and I’ve said it all along — the digital transformation of a state must be like a spinal column. That is, we create the spinal column and all the institutions come and connect, somehow connect like spinal nerves to that spinal column, and up here is the brain: it’s, somehow, I don’t know, the government cloud, it’s the Ministry of Digitalization which, in partnership with private companies, manages all these things.
Gheorghe Damian: And I think one more thing: digital transformation is not done by a single company in this country, right? Which, after making a software, launches it and finds that it doesn’t work. We have so many qualified human resources. We see that there are areas in this country that are comparable to Silicon Valley. So we have human resources, we have trained people. I think there needs to be a little will and, as I’ve said all along, digital transformation needs to start first and foremost with debureaucratization.
Dragos Stanca: Very briefly: three things that you would like as many city councilors in the country to know or to reach a higher level. Three messages or things that you would like to know faster or things that you think should reach more people.
Gheorghe Damian: Yes: debureaucratization, the importance of databases and then human resources, who understand the importance of these two things.
Dragos Stanca: Thank you. You will also meet the mayor after the break, in the panel moderated by Radu Puchiu. Thank you for your presence. Thank you. And congratulations.