Romanian Senate Votes For Next Year’s Budget, Worth RON146.439M

Senators assigned a total of RON128.173 million for usual expenses, of which RON92.344 million for staff expenses, including the wage and bonuses fund for 137 senators and for the 850 people in the senatorial staff.

The budget adopted by the senators does not include wage hikes for some categories of Senate employees, such as drivers or the cleaning staff.

As the Senate took over some locations which had been previously managed by the Chamber of Deputies, the budget for services and assets has been significantly increased.

Thus, senators allocated RON32.956 million to the maintenance of the new locations, to housing expenses for senators who do not have residency in Bucharest, to mobile and hard-line communication bills and to subscriptions to press publications.

The budget for next year stipulates RON18.266 million for capital expenses, for investments in the locations administered by the senate, new cars for the central auto park, IT equipment and other assets needed for the Senate’s headquarter and territorial senatorial offices.

Senators will refrain from acquiring 140 cars and 150 computers, which brings about a cutback of RON90 million in next year’s budget, the new head of the Senate, social democrat Ilie Sarbu, said Wednesday.

He added the Standing Office reduced its own budget for next year by RON90 million, and has been assigned a budget of RON146 million.

According to the budget draft for next year, the senate would have had a budget of RON153.398 million, and thus would have exceeded by 18.52% the limit proposed by the Economy Ministry. The ministry sent a letter suggesting the Senate’s budget for 2009 should not exceed RON129.43 million.