Romanian President, PM Continue Row Over Protégés

Romanian President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu engaged in a sarcastic back-and-forth Friday in Craiova, southern Romania, where Romania and U.S. giant Ford Motor Co. wrapped up the deal to buy state-owned auto assembly plant Automobile Craiova.

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In his speech before Automobile employees Tariceanu thanked Basescu for attending the ceremony and said this shows the head of state finally understood the country’s controversial car tax is useful and not a matter of personal ambition.

Basescu replied he doesn’t know how important the tax is and how much it helped Ford, “but Citroen is definitely well protected.”

Tariceanu is the majority shareholder in Automotive Trading Services, which is a major dealer of the Citroen brand in Romania.

Later on, the prime minister replied to Basescu’s allegations that he is protecting Citroen in his fierce support for the car tax. Tariceanu said the president’s road constructor “friends” manage to double their revenues every year securing overpriced public procurement contracts.

Three weeks ago, Tariceanu said prosecutors are looking into a case when a Romanian consortium secured a public procurement contract for double the price of another bid.

The consortium formed by PA&Co International, Euroconstruct Trading '98 and Serch Corporation secured in 2006 a road repair contract for EUR30 million, to the detriment of Austria’s Alpine Mayreder, which had requested a price of EUR16 million.

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