Abstract. The efficiency of the rational allocation process of public resources represents a constant issue for both scholars and practitioners, under the European and global requirements set up by International Monetary Fund, European Commission and OECD agendas. In Romania, among the objectives of local government reforms, the rational allocation of public resources can also be identified. Influenced by changes induced by the global economic crisis, achieving this objective became a requirement for the administration of public institutions. From an economics and legal perspective, budgets increasingly came to be used as an instrument for public intervention. The goal of this paper is to identify budgeting mechanisms used at local public administration level in order to determine the main interest factors for the approached subject. In this context, our research is based on an analytical method of collecting information from existing written sources, legal analyses and strategic documents. Therefore, the research aims to outline the positive and negative aspects of budgeting processes in the public administration. The results of the research will help us to draw some conclusions which will be integrated into a project concerning the rational resource allocation processes in territorial administrative units.

Keywords: local government reform, budgeting mechanism, rational allocation.