Romanian PM: Ministers To Terminate Late, Fraudulent EU-Funded Contracts

„We will be very strict and unforgiving as the Government with companies and especially public authorities that hold improper auctions or are late in running their projects. I have explicitly asked the ministers to terminate contracts if they find auction problems or ungrounded delays,” said Boc.

Last week, the prime minister said that the latest meeting of the inter-ministry committee on EU funds discussed whether a contract might be terminated if no work has been done on the project six months after signing.

He also warned that faulty auctions and conflicts of interest among local authorities can impair the absorption of European funds and called for transparency and responsibility.

The European Commission reimbursed Romania around EUR650 million by June 24, 2011, for projects financed with EU funds, meaning about 3% of the total EUR19.7 billion allotted for 2007-2013, according to Catalin Vatafu, advisor to Prime Minister Emil Boc and head of the Authority for the Coordination of Structural Instruments (ACIS).

People close to the matter told MEDIAFAX last week that the Government is considering reducing the state ceiling to pre-finance EU-funded projects from 30% to about 15% of the contract’s value, as many of the companies which contract EU funds fail to provide documents to justify how they used the money.