Romania’s Budgets Always Included Unpaid Bills Of Previous Year – Ex Fin Min
"The 2009 budget has nothing to do with those bills. That’s a universal constant in Romania’s budgets. Last year, we had bills from 2007 worth hundreds of millions of euros, which we included in the 2007 budget deficit calculated according to European accounting standards,” Vosganian told MEDIAFAX.
The former minister urged authorities to clarify where the large overdue sums come from and detail them by ministries, other credit coordinators and local authorities.
"From the data I have, unpaid bills could primarily come from local authorities. We’ve instated a ceiling to avoid chaotic spending. In the end, most city halls are run by social democrats and democrat liberals, they should see who spent extra and why,” Vosganian said.
Finance minister Gheorghe Pogea said a week ago the government would pay, in installments, until March, bills issued and unpaid by the end of 2008, worth a total 3.05 billion lei (EUR1=RON4.2775). The sum includes only works that have been received and billed.
The first installment, of RON1 billion, was to be paid at the end of January and the ministry was to pay an additional RON1 billion in February and the rest in March.
The Romanian state owes a total RON7.7 billion to suppliers and contractors, including for works received last year but still unbilled.
Vosganian said it is unfair that the new government blames the former one for its hardships since he himself warned repeatedly that election promises were unrealistic as Romania’s budget was to decrease drastically starting October because of the crisis.
"The current government should take part of the blame for the 2008 budget deficit. At the end of November, we had a deficit of 2.9% of GDP. When I left the Finance ministry, the worst case scenario saw the deficit at 3.8% of GDP, and in the last two weeks, when the new government had settled in, the deficit widened to 4.8% of GDP. In December, the deficit practically doubled,” the former finance minister said.